All highrises, malls and marketplaces in the state will have to conduct annual fire audits, failing which commercial establishments would lose their right to do business, newly appointed fire services minister Firhad Hakim said on Tuesday.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) at present renews trade licences if the owners of the commercial establishment are able to show they have applied to the fire department for a fire-safety certificate.

“The owners need to give an undertaking that they will produce the fire-safety certificate within six months,” said an adviser to the state government on fire safety measures.

Hakim said he would go through the current legal provisions and bring in a new legislation, if needed, to implement strict fire-safety practices. “All highrises, malls and marketplaces need to have fire audits conducted annually. Or else, their business licence will be cancelled,” he said at a press conference in the Assembly.

“I will go through the existing laws. If there is no provision for what we propose, the government will bring in a new legislation for this,” he added.

Any place deemed “vulnerable” will have to, additionally, conduct fire drills every quarter to get clearance certificates from civic bodies concerned, the minister said. “All fire-safety equipment and arrangements will have to be functional,” he said.

“There will have to be a map at the entrance of every mall or marketplace detailing the sources of water, exit routes and other crucial information, so that firefighters can get an idea immediately,” he said. All fire stations will have GPS-based systems for better response, he said.

Ideally, trade licences shouldn’t be renewed without a fire-safety certificate but the corporation started accepting applications for fire-safety certificate as valid as it was losing out on revenue, the adviser said.

Hakim said fire certificates would soon be issued online to hasten the procedure. “This is for greater transparency. Even if the application is rejected, the department will provide a clarification online, so that the person can re-apply,” he said.

A fire-safety committee was set up in 2011 to conduct annual audits, but it was never implemented, he said. “The selection of the auditor is also important. The auditor must be a company or an individual with proper training,” he said.

Earlier, responding to a question from Congress Amta MLA Asit Mitra in the House, Hakim said Bengal has witnessed 4,629 incidents of fire between April and October this year.

Hakim said the department has been trying to modernise fire services with proper training and equipment for increasing efficiency in fighting fires and allied emergencies.

“A team went to Paris recently for training. We are trying to send our personnel abroad for learning newer techniques…. We have introduced small vehicles and motorcycles so that they can access fires in narrow places,” he said.

Hakim said implementation of “major” modernisation proposals is an expensive proposition, which is why the government has been carrying it out in a phased manner.

“After the 34-year Left regime, there were only 100 fire stations. In just seven years, we have built 42 more,” he said.