The Hindu Business Line : Guntur chilli market yard gutted, loss estimated at Rs 55 cr

Salvage operation: People try to salvage some of their belongings even as a fire rages at the Guntur Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee yard, the countrys largest chilli market yard. The major fire, caused by an electrical short-circuit, gutted huge stocks and destroyed over 500 shops. The loss is estimated at Rs 55 crore.

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Visakhapatnam/Hyderabad, May 3 A major fire broke out in the Guntur chilli market yard, the biggest one in the country for the spice, on Saturday, heavily damaging chilli stocks and even a branch of Andhra Bank.

As per the initial enquiry conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Government, out of the 2,01,000 bags of chillies, 1,90,000 bags were burnt.

“There was a stock of 1,06,000 bags of chillies of farmers and 95,000 bags belonging to purchasers at the time of the fire. The total damage including that of infrastructure is estimated to be around Rs 55 crore, while around Rs 30 crore worth of chillies were burnt,” the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, told a press conference after holding a review meeting here on Saturday.

Insurance

He also said the Government will look at the amount insurance companies will give and then decide on a compensation package. “Fifty shops of commission agents were insured at Rs 1 lakh by the agents for the commodity and the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC), Guntur has insured the structures for Rs 23 crore,” Mr Reddy added.

The fire broke out in the morning when a lorry hit overhead electric wires, causing a short circuit. The Chief Minister also ruled out a possibility of sabotage but said an enquiry will be conducted. Earlier, the State Marketing Minister, Mr M. Mareppa, pegged the initial loss at Rs 40 crore.

The market yard is on the Guntur-Chilakaluripeta road and a cluster of 25-30 cold storages are situated in the region within a radius of 15 km.

One of the major handicaps in putting out the fire was that there were not enough fire tenders. The district administration had to summon tenders from nearby Vijayawada and Ongole. In view of this, officials faced problems in putting out a fire at a cluster of 25 houses in Chirala. Until evening, the fire had not been brought under control.

Our Mumbai Bureau reports: Mr Srinivas Reddy, a trader in the APMC market, said that being the peak season, arrivals were about 1.5 lakh bags last week and over two lakh bags were stored in the warehouses.

Price run

“Depending on the quality, prices were hovering around Rs 3,200 to Rs 4,200 per quintal on good export demand and shortage of good quality produce,” he added.

Average arrivals a day in this APMC market yard, spread over 60 acres, are about one lakh bags.

Chilli farmers from different parts of the state and neighbouring States bring their produce to the Guntur market, which also serves as an export hub. Spices produced in Prakasam, Krishna, Khammam and Warangal districts are also brought to Guntur for trading.

Fire at Cairn warehouse

Meanwhile, a warehouse of Cairn Energy in Vakalapudi near Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh caught fire.

The company stores pipes in the warehouse and reportedly, they have been gutted. Fire tenders from Nagarjuna Fertiliser Corporation and Godavari Fertiliser Corporation were rushed to put out the fire.

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