Section 50 in The Merchant Shipping (Fire Appliances) Rules, 1969
50. Equivalents, exemptions and savings.
(1)Where these rules require that a particular fitting, material, appliance, apparatus or equipment or any type thereof shall he fitted or carried in a ship or that any particular arrangement or provision shall be made, the Central Government may allow any other fitting, material, appliance, apparatus or any type thereof to be carried or fitted or any other arrangement or provision to be made in that ship if they are satisfied, by trial thereof or otherwise, that such other fittings, material, appliance, apparatus or equipment or type thereof or any such other arrangement or provision is at least as effective as that required under these rules.(2)The Central Government may, on such conditions as it thinks fit, exempt--(a)any ship of Class V, VII or VIII from the requirements of these rules if it is satisfied that by the nature of her construction and design it is neither practicable nor reasonable for that ship to comply with such requirements;(b)any ship which is not normally engaged on international voyages but which in exceptional circumstance is required to undertake a single international voyage from the requirement of these rules, provided the ship complies with such safety requirements as are, in the opinion of the Central Government, adequate for the intended voyage.(3)These rules shall not apply in the case of a ship the keel of which was laid before the Safety Convention came into force :Provided that such ship complies with the requirements of the Indian Merchant Shipping (Fire Appliances) Rules, 1956, as in force immediately before the coming into force of these rules and complies also with such other requirements as to improvement and modifications in standards of fire safety as maybe specified by the Central Government having due regard to the date the ship was built and the extent of major structural alterations involved.
