Fire breaks out at Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation building

Kolkata: A major fire broke out at the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) in Salt Lake on Friday afternoon.

According to sources, on Friday around 4 pm, employees of BMC's Engineering department on the second floor saw flame inside the office. Immediately the floor was evacuated and employees along with Mayor Krishna Chakraborty were informed. Later the whole Poura Bhavan was evacuated. Initially the staff of BMC tried to douse the fire using fire extinguisher cylinders but failed to do so. After almost an hour, the fire was controlled. Sources informed that when the incident took place, Chakraborty was in a meeting with officials and Member Mayor in Councils (MMiC). Later state Fire minister Sujit Bose rushed to the spot and supervised the work. He said: "It is suspected that the fire might have broken out due to a short circuit in an air conditioning machine. However, the exact cause of fire could be ascertained after an inquiry."

Several documents of BMC are feared to have been damaged due to fire.