Secunderabad hotel fire: Centre orders enquiry, adds THIS amendment in battery safety rules

A massive fire broke out in Telangana’s Secunderabad area where eight people, including a woman, staying in a hotel died in a midnight fire that originated from an electric bike showroom on September 12. The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has now ordered a preliminary enquiry into the fire incident in the electric bike showroom. The police stated that two experts are visiting the electric bike showroom after submitting the preliminary finding report. This is not the first time that an electric vehicle showroom caught fire, a few months back, a fire broke out at electric scooter maker Ather Energy's experience center in Chennai. 

"Two experts are visiting (an electric-bike showroom in Secunderabad) after the police submit a preliminary finding," the official said. Ten others were injured and rushed to various hospitals, police said. Most of the victims were asphyxiated. The fire and smoke from the showroom engulfed Hotel Ruby Pride situated above the showroom killing the victims. 

Concerned over cases of fire incidents involving electric two-wheelers, the road transport ministry recently introduced additional safety provisions in the battery safety standards which will come into effect from October 1. The amendments include additional safety requirements related to battery cells, onboard chargers, design of battery pack, and thermal propagation due to internal cell short circuits leading to the fire.

Also read: Secundrabad hotel tragedy: Not the first instance of an Electric Scooter showroom catching fire

In April this year, cases of electric two-wheelers of manufacturers such as Ola Electric, Okinawa Autotech, and PureEV catching fire were reported. It prompted the government to form a panel to examine.

The MoRTH had constituted an expert committee, chaired by ARCl Hyderabad director Tata Narsingh Rao, Centre for Fire, Explosive & Environment Safety (CFEES) scientist M K Jain, Indian Institute of Science principal research scientist Subba Reddy and IIT Madras professor Devendra Jalihal as members to recommend additional safety requirements in the existing battery safety standards notified under CMV Rules.

Taking the EV fire accidents into consideration, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari in April warned companies of penalties if they were found to be negligent and said they would be ordered to recall the defective vehicles.

Subsequently, Ola Electric recalled 1,441 units of its electric two-wheelers. Okinawa also announced its recall of 3,215 units of its Praise Pro electric scooter to fix any issue related to batteries. Similarly, Pure EV recalled 2,000 units of its ETrance+ and EPluto 7G models.

(With inputs from PTI)