A committee headed by the city’s mayor to review the “effectiveness” of existing fire safety systems in restaurants, hotels, factories and buildings will hold its first meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting will be held at the headquarters of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

Besides Calcutta’s mayor Firhad Hakim; the state’s fire and emergency services minister, Sujit Bose; the city police commissioner and KMC commissioner are members of the committee.

The mandate of the committee includes examining if existing licensing systems need tweaking and preparing guidelines to boost coordination between various departments that issue licences and permits.

“The first meeting will be held at the KMC headquarters on Wednesday afternoon,” said a KMC official.

A memo issued by chief secretary Manoj Pant on May 22 announced the formation of the committee.

It said the committee would “evaluate the extent of structural deviations from approved building plans and assess compliance with fire safety norms and suggest remedial measures”.

It will also “assess the fire safety infrastructure and operational efficacy of emergency response systems in commercial and industrial establishments”.

Calcutta is dotted with hotels, malls and restaurants that lack basic firefighting measures though hundreds of people visit these places every day.

Earlier this month, the city police commissioner visited a hotel and a market in central Calcutta to inspect fire safety measures.

The top cop advised shop owners in the market to have windows that can be opened in the staircase landings. The market has sealed windows in the landings now.

He said windows that can be opened will help let out smoke in case of a fire.

The preliminary police inquiry into the April 29 Rituraj Hotel fire had revealed that all but one of the 14 deaths were from choking in thick smoke.