In a devastating fire engulfed altogether 12 shops at Panchabati Bazar of Aralia under East Agartala police in the wee hours of Sunday with losses of properties worth above Rs. 40 lakh.

Sources said that about 2.30 AM of Sunday, fire engulfed suspected from an electric short-circuit and within minutes , the devastating fire gutted altogether 12 shops including grocery, sweet, mobile, restaurant , iron shop along with few others including a jewellery shop.

Later, two fire fighting vehicles from nearby fire stations rushed to the spot and after one hour, they controlled the huge flames. While, in the devastating fire , all the items stored in these shops completely gutted into ashes.

Later in the afternoon, Mayor of Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) Dipak Majumder and some ruling party leaders including BJP’s vice-president Subal Bhowmik visited the incident spot and spoke to affected traders.

Mayor also assured the traders, government will take all possible stems for their rehabilitation with government financial aid.  Local MLA Ramu Das also visited  the spot and spoke to all affected traders.

The officials from SDM(Sadar) have also visited and assessed the losses suffered by these traders.