Commonwealth Games : Games HQ Fails Fire Safety Test, Yet To Get No-Objection Certificate

The Commonwealth Games headquarters on Jai Singh Road is again in news -- for the wrong reasons.

The Delhi Police's fire depart- ment has claimed that the build- ing is yet to receive a `no objec- tion clearance'.

The clearance is mandatory to occupy the building. Iro- nically, the building was occu- pied almost eight months ago.

Earlier, the Delhi Urban Arts Commission and the architect of the building came down heav- ily on the Games panel for the `pink and purple wrap' adorn- ing the façade.

Generally, the fire depart- ment issues the NOC or clear- ance certificate to any building after it is fully constructed.

After the go-ahead from the fire department, the municipal body concerned -- in this case the NDMC -- issues an occu- pancy certificate.

Fire department officials had inspected the building in January and found that it did not meet all requirements. "To obtain a clearance cer- tificate, a building must have in place a certain number of exit points, an efficient fire detec- tion system, extinguishers, smoke management system, alarms among others," said G.C.

Mishra, Chief Fire Officer. According to sources, it was found that a lot of exit points in the building were blocked and it did not have a proper detec- tion system.