Chandigarh, Sept. 7 -- After approving the 'Haryana Fire Safety Act' for the city, which lowers the threshold for mandatory fire safety clearance and brings more buildings under its ambit, the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) is planning to water down the National Building Code (NBC) to make it easier for heritage and high-rise buildings to obtain fire safety certificates. Currently, the Delhi Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Act, 1986, is applicable in Chandigarh - the Haryana Act is yet to be notified. This Delhi Act mandates fire safety certificates (FSC) only for buildings taller than 15 metres (high-rises). However, Chandigarh MC officials pointed out that the Delhi government has repealed this legislation and replaced it with the Delhi Fire Service Act, 2007. Given Chandigarh's unique character, with its many heritage buildings, the stringent provisions under the current Act have often resulted in non-compliance with fire safety norms. Recognising the need for a more tailored law, the civic body's fire and rescue services committee conducted a detailed review of fire safety legislations in neighbouring states, including Punjab, and eventually agreed upon the Haryana Act. The Haryana Act lowers the threshold for mandatory fire safety clearance from 15 metres to 9 metres for educational and institutional buildings. Besides, it also makes fire safety certificates or no-objection certificates (NOCs) compulsory for all high-rise buildings - except residential buildings up to a height of 16.5 metres - and for special buildings such as hotels, business centres, mercantile buildings, industrial units, storage facilities, hazardous buildings, and mixed-occupancy structures with a floor area exceeding 500 square metres on any one or more floors. Additionally, educational and institutional buildings taller than 9 metres also require NOCs. Along with this, states and union territories of India are also required to implement the NBC, which is a comprehensive document that covers detailed guidelines for construction, maintenance and fire safety of the structures. To obtain the no objection certificate (NOC), the NBC mandates a particular number of fire extinguishers on all floors, automated sprinkler systems, escape routes without obstruction, natural ventilation and lighting, and furniture with flame-resistant material. However, the stringent NBC norms are impractical for heritage buildings, which are not suited to accommodate the prescribed fire safety modifications. Due to this, the buildings, even when they wish to, are not able to comply with the rules and get NOC in Chandigarh. There are around 420 high-rise buildings in Chandigarh with a height of 15 metres or more, but most of these are heritage structures, including buildings in the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Panjab University (PU), UT secretariat, police headquarters andothers. The buildings are presently running without fire safety certificates, posing a risk to the lives of thousands of people, as the heritage structures cannot be altered, demolished, or extensively renovated to meet the guidelines stipulated by the National Building Code. As per officials, many builders, traders and government authorities have repeatedly raised concerns that it is difficult to accommodate the rules in already constructed buildings, such as increasing the number of exits or constructing heavy overhead water tanks, which the existing structures cannot bear. "A group of fire officers are drafting the relaxations in NBC rules and its suggestions would be placed before the Fire And Emergency Services Committee for approval. The changes would include reducing the installation of individual overhead water tanks for fire systems, encouraging all establishments to keep more portable fire extinguishers and giving fire training to them. The relaxation will also allow people to get the no-objection certificates s easily andby fulfilling fire safety norms," said councillor Maheshinder Singh Sidhu, who is thechairman of civic body's fire committee....