Blaze guts 17 AC buses of DTC, sabotage not ruled out

Seventeen low floor air-conditioned buses of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), costing over Rs 10 crore, went up in flames in a major fire today at the Ambedkar Nagar depot in South Delhi even as authorities were probing various angles, including sabotage.
Nobody was injured in the blaze at the depot where around 125 low floor AC and non-AC buses were parked. The cause of the fire, which was reported at 3:20 AM, was yet to be ascertained.
DTC has appointed a three-member panel to investigate the cause of the fire and asked it to file its report within three days.

Delhi Fire Service Chief A K Sharma did not rule out possibility of a bonfire causing the blaze or a sabotage.
"Somebody might have lit a bonfire to keep warm during the winter night and left it unattended. These are CNG buses and a leak of the inflammable gas may have caught fire.
"Parked buses cannot catch fire on their own. It could also be some sort of sabotage but its too early to say and only forensic examination can reveal the exact cause of fire," Sharma told PTI.

He said a total of 11 fire tenders were pressed into service and the fire was doused by around 5:15 AM.

The AC buses gutted in the fire were procured at a cost of over Rs 60 lakh each around four years back. All other buses were immediately taken out of the depot following the fire.
"We have appointed a three-member fact finding committee, headed by Deputy Chief General Manager (Mechanical), which has been asked to submit its report within three days," DTC's Chairman-cum-Managing Director Debashree Mukherjee said.
The fire, however, did not engulf a CNG filling station which was close to the parked buses.
The police have registered an FIR and a forensic team visited the spot and picked up circumstantial evidence to ascertain cause of the fire. Depot officials and eyewitnesses were also questioned in this connection.

"We have registered a case under section 336 IPC (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and section 427 IPC (mischief causing damage) has been registered and we are investigating the case from all possible angles," said a senior police official.