Educational institutes located in buildings up to nine metres in height and without basements in Gujarat will not be required to obtain the mandatory fire safety NOC from local authorities but instead, they will have to submit a self-certified document, the state government said.
Such educational institutes will have to get the self-attested, self-certified fire No Objection Certificate (NOC) ensuring they have put in place all the fire safety systems as per the prescribed rules, an official release said, adding this decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
The self-certified fire NOC will have to be reported to the officer of the Education Department in the concerned town, city or district, it said.
The government has also decided to add six new fire regions in Gujarat to expand the coverage of fire services in the state.
In addition to eight metros in the state, six more fire regions will be set up, one each in the jurisdiction of the Regional Commissioner of Municipalities in the districts of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Rajkot and Bhavnagar, it said.
A senior IAS officer will act as the fire officer of these fire regions. Buildings are required to obtain fire safety NOC from the competent authorities after implementing the norms laid down for the fire safety system.