May 9: Excessive use of air conditioners, heaters, computers and other electrical equipment without increasing the power load capacity has turned government buildings in the city into tinder boxes awaiting a spark.

According to official sources, State Fire Service Organisation (SFSO) reports say that heavy transmission of power puts excess load on electrical wires in government buildings and this could result in short circuits.

Dispur has been citing financial constraints for its failure to install new transformers in the government buildings to take the extra loads.

A majority of government buildings ? including the offices of deputy commissioners of Kamrup (metro), the commissioner of Lower Assam division, the chief judicial magistrate?s court, the PWD and the water resource and irrigation departments, were constructed in the early Sixties and late Seventies.

?Several new electrical equipment have been installed in these offices since, but the power load capacity of the buildings remains the same. The government departments hardly engage anyone to renovate the wiring,? a source said.

A senior engineer of the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) said excess load due to heavy transmission of power weakens the wiring and this leads to heating up of the metal wires.

The heat melts the insulation and the metal wires come into contact, leading to sparks and generation of heat that kindle adjoining combustible surfaces.

He suspects this was the reason for the fire at Janata Bhawan where use of air conditioners, heaters and computers is a hundred times more than in the Eighties and Nineties. But the load capacity remains the same as no additional transformers have been installed at the old secretariat complex for many years now.

SFSO director Jatin Mipun said it is ?common sense? that use of electricity beyond the load capacity would invite danger.

?Though the SFSO is aware of the danger caused by heavy electrical load in government buildings, we cannot do much about it. We cannot give instructions to the government offices,? he added.

He said a survey undertaken by the SFSO had found that several buildings, including Hotel Brahmaputra Ashok, Don Bosco High School, Cotton College and Cotton Collegiate HS School, do not adhere to fire safety norms.

He said schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education seek no objection certificates from the SFSO, but those affiliated to the Board of Secondary Education, Assam, do not.

The SFSO has submitted its recommendations and guidelines for implementation in schools, hotels and other private buildings to Dispur.

Admitting to lapses in implementation of fire safety norms, manager of Hotel Brahmaputra Ashok, Rajiv Nair, said the hotel would be renovated soon at a cost of Rs 15 lakh and all fire safety norms would be followed.

Sources said Dispur has put the lives of those frequenting and working in over 20 government buildings, identified by the public works department as high-risk structures, in grave danger by putting on hold their rehabilitation.