Lucknow hotel fire: At least two dozen officials of LDA, power and fire depts under scanner

The two-member probe panel, comprising Lucknow Zone Commissioner Roshan Jacob and Lucknow Police Commissioner SB Shirodkar, has sought details from the LDA on how the hotel was allowed to function without its map being approved.

Similarly, the panel has asked the fire safety department to send details of how a NOC was issued to the hotel despite it lacking fire safety management.

The panel has also asked the power department how the hotel got a 250 KW under the commercial category in absence of valid documents, five years ago.

The LDA has sent a list of 22 officials, including engineers, who were allegedly responsible for allowing the hotel to run without completing formalities. Some of the officials on the list have retired. “The list of officials and staff has been submitted to the committee formed by the government. The next course of action will be decided by them,” LDA Vice-Chairman Indra Kant Tripathi.

In its preliminary inquiry, the LDA found that on May 26 this year, its zonal officer issued a notice to the owners of Levana Suites. After getting no reply, the LDA issued a second notice on August 28 this year. The second notice was issued under the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973. The matter is still being heard.

According to a power department official, the hotel owner had submitted an “LDA-approved” map along with other documents to the department for getting a power connection.

“We have submitted documents sought by the team conducting an inquiry into fire incident. As per the documents, a map was then submitted offline to seek power connection for Levana Suites,” Dileep Kumar Dhar Dwivedi, Executive Officer, Power Department. “We are trying to verify with the LDA whether the map submitted by the hotel owner is genuine,” said an official of the power department.

Meanwhile, sources in the fire safety department said that the NOC was issued to the hotel in 2017.

“In 2021, the NOC was renewed with a condition that the hotel owner would build one more exit point. There were already two exit points in the hotel… After seven months, when another exit point was not built, the department issued a notice to the hotel owner. In its notice, the fire safety department stated that despite being told, the additional exit point was not built, and in such an event, the NOC would be cancelled,” an official said.

Meanwhile, Chief Fire Officer (Lucknow) VK Singh said the hotel owner built another exit point after a notice was issued, but they never informed the fire safety department about it.

An official of the fire safety department said that during the rescue operation on Monday, the firefighters found that the hotel lacked proper ventilation, as a result of which the smoke had engulfed the building. “There were iron grilles on the windows. Consequently, people trapped inside could not come out. The firefighters had to cut the iron rods to enter the building to rescue victims,” the official said.

On Monday around 7 am, a fire broke out at the four-storey hotel located in the commercial centre of the state Capital. The fire is suspected to have been caused by a short-circuit in the hotel’s kitchen on the ground floor. Four guests of the hotel, including two women, were killed and 10 others were injured.

Chief Medical Officer (Lucknow) Manoj Agarwal had said that prima facie, it appeared that the death was caused by suffocation. The postmortem reports are still awaited, said police.

Over a dozen fire tenders were deployed to bring the blaze under control.