Fire at Sriharikota Space Centre godown

Hyderabad: Fire broke out this morning at a godown of a private agency at Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, destroying spare parts and machinery components stored inside, police said.

Nobody was injured in the mishap, they said, a short circuit is believed to be the cause of the fire that broke out about 6 AM.

The private agency was responsible for maintenance of the propellant plant at the Space Centre, commonly known as SHAR (Sriharikota Range).

The CISF personnel brought the fire under control within 30 minutes, a senior police officer said.

The officials of the agency initially said some ledger books and furniture were burnt in the incident, but later, in the police complaint, stated that spare parts and components of some machines, worth around Rs 1 crore, were gutted.

"We are conducting further probe," district Superintendent of Police P. V. S. Ramakrishna told PTI over phone.

Senior officials of the Space Centre inspected the site. The Space Centre, which was popularly known as SHAR (Sriharikota Range), was renamed as 'Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR' on September 5,2002, in the fond memory of Prof Satish Dhawan, former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).