Palaj, Gandhinagar: Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) is conducting a four-day short course on ‘Building Design for Fire and Life Safety’ from June 26-29, 2019. With increasing density of Indian urban and rural areas, the threat of fire poses more and more challenges. This course aims to cover aspects of fire and life safety in design of buildings.

The short course on ‘Building Design for Fire and Life Safety’, is designed to cover the fundamental design aspects of buildings, including structural systems, MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) systems like fire alarm and suppression systems, egress design, façade systems, and fire and smoke barriers. Provisions of National Building Code (NBC) 2016 and relevant international codes were also discussed. IIT Gandhinagar is also home to a unique full-scale fire testing facility, which is the only of its kind facility in India. Case studies on full-scale façade fire tests conducted here in past were also discussed during this course.

Shri P K Taneja, Director General, Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM), was the Chief Guest of the inauguration function and emphasized the importance of such courses and discussions in the context of recent fire incidents.

The course is being conducted by Dr Gaurav Srivastava, a faculty member of Civil Engineering at IITGN and co-coordinator of the Centre for Safety Engineering (CSE), along with other field experts. Giving more information on the course, Prof Gaurav Srivastava said, “The objective of this short-course was to discuss and enhance the understanding of design aspects of building systems from a fire and life safety perspective. This course is of great contemporary relevance to consultants, practising engineers, architects and decision makers so that proper fire and life safety provisions are incorporated in building designs.” The course is in line with CSE’s goal of enhancing the technical knowhow and capacity building in the areas of safety in India.

Students, professionals, consultants, and manufacturers from across India have participated in the course, with participants coming from Jammu & Kashmir to Kerala, and Odisha to Gujarat. The course is also attended by one international participant.