Why are buildings not protected from fire outbreaks?

01 Jun 2019 Editorial Team

Among the most recent reports, 20 students were killed and several injured after a major fire broke out – triggered by a short circuit – at a coaching centre in Sarthana area of Surat. According to India Risk Survey (IRS) 2018, as reported, fire outbreak is the third biggest risk to business continuity and operations. “The recommendations for construction of low-rise and high-rise structures should be properly followed,” says Dr Pramod Kumar Gupta, Professor, Structural Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT-Roorkee, adding that, in most cases, basic recommendations are not followed. “The used material should meet the specified requirement of fire resistance. A new version of IS 456 specifically covers different structural elements as per fire resistance.”

Consider this: In Delhi, a fire broke out at Arpit Palace hotel in Karol Bagh on February 12 and a four-storey building belonging to gift store Archies on February 14. Last year, a fire broke out in Beaumonde Towers in Mumbai’s Prabhadevi, the complex where actor Deepika Padukone resides; also, the government-run ESIC Kamgar Hospital located in suburban Andheri in Mumbai caught fire. Reports revealed that the hospital contained inflammable material owing to ongoing construction work, which caught fire, and the flames spread rapidly. Also, firefighting equipment was reportedly not in place.

While non-compliance of safety norms and under-equipped fire services are responsible for the sudden increase in risk posed by fire outbreaks, the use of low-quality or wrong building materials does contribute to such mishaps.

SHRIYAL SETHUMADHAVAN

Infrastructure Transport

12 Mar 2026

Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah

"Kavach version four has been commissioned on 1,452 route km, covering the high density Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors. The rollout included laying 8,570 km of optical fibre, installation of 1,100 telecom towers, deployment of trackside equipment over 6,776 RKm and establishment of 767 station data centres. Trackside implementation has been taken up on 24,427 RKm covering Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and High Density Network sections. The programme aims to strengthen signalling and train protection on key routes.Kavach is an indigenously developed automatic train protecti..

Railways Advance Kalyan–Murbad Line And Mumbai Capacity Expansion

"Indian Railways is advancing multiple rail infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, including the sanctioned Kalyan–Murbad new line and sizable investments under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project. The Kalyan–Murbad 28 km new line has been sanctioned at Rs 8.36 billion (bn) on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis with the Government of Maharashtra and has been declared a Special Railway Project for land acquisition; proposals covering 214 hectares are at various stages of acquisition. Budgetary outlay for projects falling fully or partly in Maharash..

Parliamentary Panel Flags Funding Gaps in Heavy Industries

"The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (Rajya Sabha) presented its 332nd report on the Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI). Figures converted from crore and lakh are expressed in million (mn). The Budget Estimates 2026-27 for the Ministry stand at Rs 79,399 mn against a projected requirement of Rs 94,843.2 mn, a shortfall of about 16 per cent, with revenue at Rs 79,370.8 mn and capital compressed to Rs 28.2 mn from Rs 5,020 mn.The committee flagged recurring BE-to-RE compression and declining revised estimate utilisation, and calle..