Getting a new trade licence or renewing one that has lapsed just got tougher.

Learning its lessons from the January 12 Burrabazar blaze, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has made it mandatory for the 4 lakh-odd traders in the city to get a fire licence or a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire brigade before applying for a trade licence or renewal of an old one.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya put his seal on the decision after meetings with corporation members and municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

Sources said the commissioner had asked the chief manager (licence), Bhaskar Ghosh, to implement the decision with immediate effect.

Till this came about, traders would get licences from the CMC by merely producing copies of the applications for fire licences or NOCs from the fire brigade. Once they got the CMC papers, it did not matter whether the fire brigade gave or refused them the required fire-safety clearance.

From now on, traders will have to produce valid copies of their fire licences or NOCs even while applying for renewal of their trade permits.

While the trading fraternity isn’t happy about this, the fire brigade does not seem to be enthusiastic either.

There are only 10 inspectors in the fire licence wing and 10 inspectors in the NOC wing for the entire state. A trader seeking an NOC from the fire brigade headquarters at 13D Mirza Ghalib Street has to get the application form from Writers’ Buildings, and it could take at least six months for the application to be processed.

A fire licence is mandatory for trading in 54 chemical and 72 non-chemical, but inflammable, articles. A fire licence, just like a trade permit, comes up for review every year.

An NOC is required for highrise and high-risk buildings. “Any building taller than 14.5 metres is a highrise. Eateries, cinema halls, shopping malls, fast food centres and places where inflammable articles are used or stored are considered high-risk buildings,” the director of fire services, Gopal Bhattacharya, said.

The president of the Federation of Traders’ Organisations, Tarak Nath Trivedi, said the CMC’s amended rules were unfair on traders. “We will protest the CMC’s decision.”