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Taking a major decision on the Fire Safety NOC process, the Punjab government has given great relief to traders, builders and common citizens. Now every year the imperative of renewing Fire Safety NOC (No Objection Certificate) has been abolished in the state. Instead, now it will be divided into three different categories and long-term validity will be given.

Cabinet Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sondh informed about this administrative reform in the press conference on Monday. He said that this decision is a revolutionary step towards promoting ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and ending the red tape. Now the process of fire NOC will not only be easy, but will also become completely digital.

Now NOC in three categories

The cabinet minister said that the fire NOC is now divided into 3 categories, whose validity will be as follows:-

Category 1: valid for 5 years

Category 2: valid for 3 years

Category 3: valid for 1 year

This new structure will provide relief to those people who had to make rounds of departments to renew NOC every year.

‘Now the process will be transparent and tamper-proof’: Minister

During the press conference, Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sondh clearly said that we are coming out of the old system of red tape. Our goal is to make administrative services fast, transparent and corruption -free. He told that earlier citizens and builders had to visit departments several times for approval, but now this process will be easy and timely.

Along with this, the minister informed that now registered architects will be able to submit online through a government portal of their building. This entire process will now be digitally operated. With the launch of this portal, the role of middlemen is over. As soon as the plan uploads the plan by the architect, it will go directly to the system and process. This process will now be completely transparent and tamper-proof.

Focus on modern fire safety standards

The minister further said that now the definition of fire safety is not limited to water and sand. Now modern equipment and technology is being included in safety standards so that buildings can get better security. Taking another important decision, the government has increased the maximum height limit of buildings from 18 meters to 21 meters. This will give more flexibility to the builders and planners and this decision is in line with the current trends of urban development.

At the end of the press conference, Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sondh said that the purpose of our policy is to make Punjab a better, investmentable and living state. These are not just changes in the rules, but are a strong step taken towards development and good governance.