As Mohali Grows, Safety Standards Are Coming Into Focus जैसे-जैसे मोहाली बढ़ रहा है, सुरक्षा मानकों पर ध्यान केंद्रित हो रहा है ## As Mohali Grows, Safety Standards Are Coming Into Focus ਜਿਵੇਂ-ਜਿਵੇਂ ਮੋਹਾਲੀ ਵਧ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ, ਸੁਰੱਖਿਆ ਮਾਪਦੰਡ ਧਿਆਨ ਵਿੱਚ ਆ ਰਹੇ ਹਨ

Fire Safety Audits Are Coming to Mohali's PGs and Restaurants

The first House meeting of Mohali's newly elected Municipal Corporation on June 27 produced a directive that will land directly in the inbox of every PG operator, restaurant owner, and gym manager in the city. Mohali MLA Kulwant Singh directed the municipal commissioner to conduct fire safety audits of paying guest accommodations, restaurants, gyms, and other public establishments across Mohali.

The stated reason: two recent fatal fire incidents in different parts of the country.

What Kulwant Singh Said

Stressing the need for proactive action, Kulwant Singh said the city cannot afford to ignore fire safety in commercial establishments and residential accommodations where large numbers of people gather or stay. The administration needs to act before something like that happens in Mohali, not after.

The four categories named — PGs, restaurants, gyms, and other public establishments — are exactly the kinds of premises where fire safety compliance is most inconsistently enforced across Indian cities. High footfall. Mixed-use buildings. Often running out of residential properties that were never designed for commercial occupation.

The PG Problem Specifically

Mohali's PG sector has grown fast. IT City employment, ISB, IISER, PEC and their feeder institutions in Sectors 81-83, and general in-migration of young professionals have filled up the residential sectors with paying guest houses.

Most of them are in converted residential buildings. Single staircase. Minimal fire exits. No sprinkler systems. 20 to 50 people sharing a floor that was originally designed for one family. Fire departments in most Indian cities do not systematically inspect PGs because they fall in an awkward gap between residential and commercial categories. Neither category's inspection regime catches them cleanly.

Very few Mohali PGs have formal fire NOCs. In the sectors where PG density is highest, Sectors 66, 68, 70, 74, 76, and the Phase 6-11 belt, the compliance picture is almost certainly poor. A municipal audit drive changes that calculation.

Whether This Becomes Real

Directing the commissioner to conduct audits is step one. What happens next determines whether this is governance or optics.

The National Building Code and Punjab Fire Service Act both require fire NOCs for commercial establishments above a certain size. The enforcement mechanism relies on the MC and the Punjab Fire and Emergency Services doing the actual inspections, issuing notices, setting compliance deadlines, and following through when those deadlines pass.

Every fire safety drive in Indian cities has gone through the same cycle. Announcement after a national tragedy. Initial round of inspections. Notices to the most visible violators. Quiet fade as political attention moves elsewhere. Whether Mohali's administration breaks that cycle or follows it is what the next three months will show.

What PG Owners Should Know Now

For anyone running a PG or commercial establishment in Mohali, this is a practical heads-up. The audit window is open. The standard requirements: valid fire NOC from Punjab Fire and Emergency Services, functional fire extinguishers with current service dates, clear emergency exits with no obstructions, fire evacuation plan displayed on each floor, smoke detectors in corridors and common areas.

Properties without fire NOCs, which is most of them, will face either a compliance deadline or a closure notice when inspected. In a city where PG rental income is a significant source of returns for residential property owners, a systematic audit is not an abstract governance event. It is a compliance cost and a timeline.

The announcement was made. The audits are coming. When exactly, and how rigorously, is still to be determined.

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Sources
- Times of India — PGs, eateries under scanner as Mohali launches fire safety blitz, June 27, 2026