Fire Rages For Third Day In Storage Vault Of Stock Holding Corporation
One of the four storage bays of the vault had caught fire on Monday evening.
A fire raged for the third straight day in the underground vault of the Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd., India’s largest custodian that stores everything from mortgage documents to share certificates and partnership deeds.
One of the four storage bays of the vault had caught fire on Monday evening, Rayba Bhagwan Patil, fire station officer at Rabale, Navi Mumbai, told BloombergQuint. “Smoke and heat prevented firemen from entering the basement.”
Documents and records of StockHolding Document Management Services Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the custodian, have been partially affected, it had said in a statement yesterday. “We don't know the extent of losses. It can only be known once we have access,” Ramesh NGS, managing director and chief executive officer at the Stock Holding Corporation, said. He was hopeful that the fire will be controlled by tomorrow morning.
Founded in 1986, the depository services provider is a subsidiary of infrastructure lender IFCI Ltd. and is the central record keeping agency for collection of stamp duty from Indian states. It also offers document management and broking services through separate arms.
The Stock Holding Corporation was contracted by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India to scan and digitise documents submitted by the Sahara Group, which has been ordered by the Supreme Court to repay investors Rs 24,000 crore.
There are three robotic and one carton storage bay in the 50-feet deep basement of the building, Ramesh said. The vaults store records ranging from home loan documents, share certificates, mortgage papers of companies, bearer bonds, insurance documents of the Life Insurance Corporation of India, documents of state financial corporations and partnership agreement papers.
“We have reasons to believe that the fire started due to a short circuit in our basement where we have stored cartons,” Ramesh said.
The fire has not affected any vital records that are stored in compactors and metal bins, which are fire- and water-resistant, he said. The fourth bay contains cartons of documents of bank transactions and mobile registration. “Carton storage, of course, will be destroyed if there is a fire.”