Fire at Noida Authority office burns 100 files, had contractor agreements

NOIDA: More than 100 files were damaged in a fire at the Noida Authority office in Sector 6 on Wednesday.
The fire, which engulfed the offices of two junior engineers and a room containing a computer and a photocopy machine at work circle 10, started at 10am and was brought under control by 12 noon. No one was injured.
Officials said the files, mostly related to agreements with private contractors of work in progress or under completion, can be retrieved from other departments. They maintained that all major project files under the work circle were safe. Sectors 145-152 and 157-162 fall under work circle 10, and some junior staffers fear that old records pertaining to these might be lost or damaged in the fire.
Rajesh Kumar Singh, OSD Noida Authority, said the fire occurred due to a short circuit in the air-conditioner of one of the offices. “I was told there was a fire at work circle 10 department. I called for fire tenders which reached within minutes. We used fire cylinders to douse the flames. The fire was on the surface ceiling of the department initially but spread to two cabins and a computer/photocopy machine room,” he said.
Singh added that they prevented the fire from spreading to the neighbouring accounts department as well as the Noida Traffic Cell (NTC) office that are housed in the complex. “There is no loss of files there. All files will be scanned henceforth,” said KK Aggarwal, Noida Authority general manager in charge of work circle 10.
Sources said there could be problems in clearing of bills if a copy is not found. “Contractors may contest bills in the absence of a file and it could lead to payment disputes,” said a source, not wishing to be named. However, officials denied there could be trouble. “We have scanned over one crore files. The process is still on and we will soon have online records for safer use,” said Singh.
SP Singh, project engineer, work circle 10, told TOI that key files, including the ones on three underpasses and the third bridge on Hindon river, are safe.
Noida Authority OSD Avinash Tripathi is heading an investigation into the fire. Meanwhile, speculation is rife that the CAG audit of the authority’s projects for the past one and a half years may be impacted due to the fire.