Mayor to speak with Fire dept for clearance of office spaces

Kolkata: Following the recent fire at Kasba’s Acropolis Mall, Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Firhad Hakim has said he will take up the matter with the Fire department to see if the office spaces inside the mall can be made functional.

The Mayor, on Saturday, is learnt to have told the media that he will be speaking to the Fire department to see if the offices that function out of the mall can resume operations. It was learnt that the mall authorities had written to the Mayor and the Fire minister for permission.

The mall authorities claimed they have complied with all directions by the Fire department and shared that the Directorate of Electricity, Government of West Bengal, has granted it a fitness certificate following an inspection by experts of the mall’s electrical system. Now, they have appealed to the Fire department to allow the member companies to reopen the office section and restore electricity in the building so that the mall management can check the fire safety alarms and ensure a safe working environment.

The Mayor is learnt to have said that he has already spoken to the Fire minister and that primarily CESC needs to be requested to resume power connection to the building and only then can the office areas and shops be opened.

However, sources said the mall can only resume full operations once the Fire department, which is probing the various aspects such as fire fighting systems in the mall, fire exits etc. gives a satisfactory report.According to the mall authorities, it houses about 99 offices of several esteemed Indian and multinational companies employing over 5,000 individuals which are unable to operate due to the recent fire incident. The fire disrupted business operations and affected the nearby markets and eateries, causing a significant drop in footfall.