Once burnt. Twice sincere? Yes, says RR Sporting Club.

The Ranchi club's crowd-magnet Durga Puja pandal on Ratu Road, which was gutted in a big blaze on Mahasashthi last year, has increased its budget from Rs 35 lakh to Rs 42 lakh to prevent a rerun.

The organisers are raising a wall of aluminium behind the pandal to ensure sparks from a nearby temple havankund - one of the possible causes of the fire in 2016 - and makeshift eateries do not reach this year's Rs 28-lakh coconut shell structure. They also claim to have doubled the number of fire extinguishers and have requested the authorities for a safety audit.

Last year, RR Sporting Club was among the many Durga Puja organisers who had no fire NOC and had blatantly violated every safety norm in the rule book. Luckily, the mishap took place in the morning when the 3,000sqft inflammable bamboo-thermocol pandal, with a common entry and exit, wasn't packed with revellers.

This time, the lotus-like pandal, being made by artisans from East Midnapore, Bengal, is expected to see a footfall of not less than 50,000 a day.

Vishwajeet Panda, chief artisan supervising pandal construction, said around seven lakh coconut shells, brought from Calcutta, places in Odisha and Hyderabad, would help the lotus bloom. 'Since the construction material is inflammable in nature once again, organisers have been advised precautionary measures,' he added.

President of RR Sporting Rohit Yadav said last year's 'trauma' was still fresh in their memories. 'We still don't know how exactly our pandal caught fire (theories range from havan spark to a short-circuit), but we are leaving no stone unturned to prevent a rerun.'

According to club members, last year too they had applied for an audit, but the fire department hadn't obliged.

'This year, we sent an application well in advance and have been assured of a fire audit latest by Panchami . We have also requested the service of a fire tender, which will be on standby outside the pandal from Mahasashthi,' Rohit said.

Dhruv Kumar Sah, officer of Audrey House fire station, conceded that they had conducted a probe into last year's fire, but it didn't yield any concrete result. 'The blaze may have been triggered by loose wiring or a spark from makeshift eateries behind the pandal,' he said.

On whether RR Sporting had requested a fire audit, Sah said he was yet to receive any. 'However, the organiser may have applied to the state headquarters, which will forward it to the fire station concerned,' he added.

While the lotus pandal will have a fire-resistant aluminium sheet to guard it against sparks from the temple and eateries, insulated wiring and covered joints are being used to rule out a short-circuit.

'A miniature circuit breaker (MCB) is being installed for foolproof safety,' the club president said, stressing that the number of handheld fire extinguishers was being increased from 12 to 24 while sandbags and at least two water tankers would be kept on standby.

Rohit added that in the worst-case scenario, they had an evacuation plan ready with separate entry and exit gates.