Builders constructing high-rise hospital buildings have to contribute 25 per cent of the total cost for setting up a new fire station within a specified distance from the hospital. If a fire station already exists in the jurisdiction of the high-rise hospital building, then the builder has to contribute 25 per cent of the cost of improving, modernising and strengthening the existing fire station.
These new rules were issued via G.O. Ms No 205 by the government after making amendments to the Andhra Pradesh Fire Prevention and Safety Measures for High-Rise Hospital Buildings Rules-2011. A high-rise hospital building is defined as being more than 30 metres in height. The government also amended an earlier G.O. Ms No 2 to omit the mandatory clause of providing “ramps” in high-rise hospital buildings.
“Instead, the hospital owner or management has to increase the number of fire lifts and there shall be one lift for every 800 sq metres floor area on each floor instead of 1,200 sq metres. There shall be minimum of three power back-ups in the hospital-one exclusively for the building, the second exclusively for all the lifts and the third for all the emergency systems including the emergency lifts,” said a fire services wing official requesting not to be named. As per the amended G.O., the height of ambulatory patient wards should be a minimum of 306 metres and the height of the critical patient and treatment areas like ICUs and other life threatening diseases should be a minimum of four metres.