Kolkata: Hotels and guest houses in central Kolkata and elsewhere that were summarily shut down following the fire at a Free School Street lodge on Aug 19 that left nine people dead are unlikely to open before Durga Puja. KMC sources said there were scant chances of the civic body permitting hotels, guest houses, lodges and restaurants that were closed for either breaching fire safety norms or building rules to resume operations anytime soon.According to a KMC official, over 1,000 hotels and guest houses are lying closed, and the civic body’s fire safety audit is not far from over. Earlier, it was decided that KMC would set a Sept 20 deadline for such an audit of the establishments.KMC buildings department sources said the department was zeroing in on areas across 16 boroughs where these hotels or guest houses are concentrated in particular zones or neighbourhoods.However, KMC officials conceded that it was an uphill task to wrap up the safety audit in the next couple of months considering that a KMC team of officials would need to knock on an estimated 4,000 hotels and guest houses across the city. “So far we have surveyed less than 25-30% of the targeted establishments. It appears to be a tough job to visit the rest of such establishments in the next few months to come,” said a KMC buildings department official.A KMC buildings department official said owners of the ‘very few’ closed hotels and guest houses have made necessary changes and become fire compliant. “We have been told not to compromise with fire safety and hence we won’t approve reopening of the establishments if the fire compliance is not up to the mark,” said the civic official.These closure notices apart, several lodges, guest houses and hotels in central Kolkata have voluntarily suspended operations, fearing sudden closure notices from KMC and the state fire department during an ongoing safety audit, said a KMC official.Hotels in and around New Market, including Mirza Ghalib Street, Lindsay Street, Collin Lane, Sudder Street, Marquis Street and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, have stopped taking bookings to avoid the ignominy of asking guests to leave at short notice.According to a KMC building department official, the focus of the safety audit was on specific zones in some boroughs. “We have found Mukundapur and its adjacent areas off EM Bypass under borough XII around which there are several private hospitals top the list of hotels and guest houses followed by areas such as Park Circus, Park Street, Kyd Street, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, Free School Street, Sudder Street, Kyd Street under boroughs VI and VII that have around 1,000 such establishments. Boroughs IV and V located in Burrabazar and its adjacent areas too have the lion’s share in the city’s hotels and guest house numbers,” said a KMC official.
