Fire at JNPT: 12 rescued

A major fire broke out at the port users' building of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), which handles over 50 per cent of the country's container traffic, at Nhava Sheva in Navi Mumbai today, police said.

However, no one was injured, they said adding that fire brigade personnel rescued 12 people from the building.

The fire broke out at about 4.20 am on the third floor of the building where shippers keep documents including records of customs clearance, JNPT sources said. At least seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot to extinguish the fire, police said adding that the operations were on when reports came in.

Fire fighting teams from the navy and coast guard also assisted them in controlling the blaze, sources said. However, the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.

"This is the port building that keeps the record of customs clearance where cargo is either discharged or cleared by shippers," sources said.

Several documents were damaged in the fire and will result in delay in clearance for the cargo and the companies may incur huge losses, port sources said.

The port, which handles about 56 per cent of the total container traffic in the country currently operates two container terminals with a capacity to handle over 2.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units.