How to Make Your Building ACMS-Compliant Before the Delhi Deadline
The deadline is on or about 24 August 2026. Rule 1(3) delays Rules 34 to 38 and the Seventh Schedule by 90 days from gazette publication on 26 May 2026. ACMS is Rule 37, so Phase 1 must be working from that date: alerts to the owner or occupier and the fire safety auditor engaged under Rule 35.
Rule 37 of the Delhi Fire Service (Amendment) Rules, 2025 requires an Automated Continuous Monitoring System, and it takes effect on or about 24 August 2026. This guide is the execution path: what to check, what to install, and what to hold your vendor to.
If you want the rule itself rather than the method, read ACMS explained, clause by clause first.
The timeline
| Date | What happens | Effect on you |
|---|---|---|
| 26 May 2026 | Rules notified in the Delhi Gazette, No. 143, Part IV | Most provisions in force |
| On or about 24 Aug 2026 | Rule 37 and the Seventh Schedule take effect, per Rule 1(3) | ACMS obligation is live; Phase 1 begins |
| Later stage, date not fixed | Phase 2 begins | Critical alarms also transmitted to the Delhi Fire Service |
Step 1 — Confirm your building is in scope
Rule 37 applies ACMS to the occupancy classes in Rule 27, sub-rules (2) to (12). The thresholds that catch most buildings: residential over 15 m or five storeys, hotels over 12 m or four storeys, educational and institutional over 9 m or three storeys, business over 15 m or five storeys, mercantile over 9 m or three storeys, industrial and storage over 250 sq m covered area, and all assembly buildings with no threshold at all.
Two traps. Storey counts include mezzanine and stilt floors, so a building you think of as four storeys may be five. And if you operate an assembly building — a mall, cinema, hall or station — there is no size below which you escape.
The full table sits on the ACMS page. Confirm your classification with the Delhi Fire Service rather than assuming it.
Step 2 — Inventory what has to be monitored
Walk the building against the Seventh Schedule and mark what exists, where it is, and whether a signal can be taken from it today. Group it the way the schedule does:
- Hydrant — main, standby diesel or electrical, jockey and booster pump run status; power to main hydrant pump; riser low pressure; diesel tank low level
- Sprinkler — main sprinkler pump run status; power to that pump; riser low pressure below 5 bar
- Fire water tank — underground or above ground level; overhead tank low level
- Detection — detection operation status; control and repeater panel status; control panel battery status; manual call point status
- Life safety — public address system status; staircase pressurisation fan run status for all exits; lift lobby and hoistway fan run status; basement supply and exhaust fan run status
This is where most projects discover their real scope. The fire alarm panel is one line in five groups. The majority of the work is at pumps, tanks, risers and fans.
Step 3 — Hold the vendor to the specification
The Seventh Schedule is unusually specific, which is good news: it gives you an objective test. Take this list into the vendor conversation and ask for a yes against each clause.
| Ask | Clause |
|---|---|
| Does the gateway communicate over MQTTS? | Seventh Schedule, cl. 4(ii) |
| Does the cloud receive data at 1 minute intervals? | cl. 4(iii) |
| Does the cloud raise an SMS alarm if data stops for over 15 minutes? | cl. 4(iv) |
| Does the gateway have UPS backup of up to 7 hours? | cl. 4(v) |
| Does the gateway store at least 10,000 event logs locally? | cl. 4(vi) |
| Does it have a real-time clock so every record is timestamped? | cl. 4(vii) |
| Can the portal produce data reports and alarm reports? | cl. 4(viii) |
| Are SMS and email alerts available in real time? | cl. 4(ix) |
| Are events stored in an open-source database at 99 percent uptime? | cl. 4(x) |
| Can an API be added later to feed critical alarms to the fire service? | cl. 4(xi) |
| Does it read my existing panels and pumps, whatever the make? | Practical, not stated in the rules |
If a supplier cannot answer the 15-minute-silence question, they have not read the schedule. It is the requirement that separates a monitoring system from a dashboard, because it means the system has to prove it is alive rather than simply report when it feels like it.
Step 4 — Install without disturbing the fire systems
The schedule's integration modes are deliberately non-invasive: water differential pressure switches for pump run status, voltage sensors at the motor control centre for power, pressure switches or transmitters for riser pressure, ultrasonic devices for tank level, air differential pressure switches for fans, and integration with the existing fire alarm panel for detection.
None of that requires replacing fire equipment, and none of it should alter how the fire system behaves. Insist that monitoring is read-only: it observes the panel, it does not command it. Anything that can silence or reset a panel introduces a risk the rule never asked you to take.
Plan shutdown windows for the electrical tie-ins at the motor control centre. That, not the software, is usually the critical path.
Step 5 — Configure alerting for Phase 1, and be ready for Phase 2
Phase 1 is what you must have working at commencement: indication to the owner or occupier and to the fire safety auditor engaged under Rule 35, by app, email and SMS.
Phase 2 adds a feed of critical alarms only to the Delhi Fire Service. No date has been fixed for it, and the schedule frames the interface as a provision to be built in future. Do not buy a system that would need replacing to add it, and do not accept a claim that a live Delhi Fire Service feed exists today.
Set your escalation so that a real alarm reaches a person who can act at 2 a.m., not an inbox that is read on Monday. The rule sets the minimum; the point is response.
Step 6 — Keep the records the rules expect
Clause 4 states the objective in two parts: digital monitoring of the operation of firefighting installations, and digital maintenance and record keeping. The second half is the one people forget.
The schedule requires a real-time clock so every record is timestamped, at least 10,000 event logs held on the gateway, data and alarm reports from the cloud portal, and events stored in an open-source database at 99 percent uptime. In practice, that means when an auditor or the fire service asks what the system was doing on a given night, you produce a record rather than an account.
What good looks like
- Every system in the Seventh Schedule reporting, not just the fire alarm panel
- Data arriving at one minute intervals, with silence over 15 minutes raising its own alarm
- Owner, occupier and Rule 35 auditor receiving alerts by app, email and SMS
- A timestamped, retained history you can produce on demand
- Nothing about the installed fire system changed, and nothing able to command it
- A clear, costed path to adding the Phase 2 feed when it is defined
How FlareSens gets you there
FlareSens Pulse connects to fire panels from any manufacturer, including legacy and discontinued models, and monitors the pumps, tanks, risers, detection and fans the Seventh Schedule names. Alerts go to owners, occupiers and auditors by app, email and SMS, with a timestamped history retained for the record. It is read-only by design, so the installed fire system is unaffected. The ACMS page maps each requirement to how it is met, and a survey of one representative site is the usual starting point.
Source and caveat
Clause references are from the Delhi Fire Service (Amendment) Rules, 2025, Delhi Gazette Extraordinary, Part IV, No. 143, dated 26 May 2026. You can download the full notification (PDF, 1.3 MB), or read our clause-by-clause explainer. This is a practical guide, not legal advice. Confirm applicability, dates and any technical standards or cyber security protocols notified by the Director with the Delhi Fire Service before committing to a design or a purchase.
Frequently asked questions
What is the deadline for ACMS compliance in Delhi?
Rule 1(3) of the Delhi Fire Service (Amendment) Rules, 2025 delays the amendments to Rules 34 to 38, the First Schedule and the Seventh Schedule by 90 days from gazette publication on 26 May 2026. ACMS is Rule 37, so the requirement takes effect on or about 24 August 2026. Confirm the exact reckoning with the Delhi Fire Service.
How long does it take to make a building ACMS-compliant?
It depends far more on sensor installation at pumps, tanks and risers than on the software. A single building with accessible plant rooms and an existing fire alarm panel can typically be surveyed, fitted and reporting within a few weeks. The variables that stretch timelines are shutdown windows for tapping into pump circuits, the state of existing panels, and how many separate plant rooms have to be reached.
Do I have to replace my fire alarm panels or pumps for ACMS compliance?
The rules do not ask for replacement. The Seventh Schedule specifies how each parameter should be picked up, mostly through pressure switches, voltage sensors at the motor control centre, ultrasonic level devices and integration with the existing fire alarm panel. An OEM-independent monitoring system can read installed equipment of any make, so most buildings add monitoring rather than replacing fire systems.
What should I ask an ACMS vendor before signing?
Hold them to the Seventh Schedule. Ask whether the gateway uses MQTTS, reports at one minute intervals, raises an alarm if data stops for 15 minutes, holds UPS backup for up to 7 hours, stores at least 10,000 event logs locally, timestamps with a real-time clock, offers SMS and email alerts, stores events in an open-source database at 99 percent uptime, and can add an API to feed critical alarms to local fire and emergency services in Phase 2. Ask for each answer against the clause.
Who receives the alerts under the Delhi ACMS rules?
In Phase 1, the owner or occupier and the fire safety auditor engaged under Rule 35. In Phase 2, critical alarms are also transmitted to the Delhi Fire Service. The Seventh Schedule limits the fire service feed to critical alarms, giving power failure to pumps, low sprinkler and hydrant line pressure, and fault and fire conditions of the fire alarm system as examples.