Sebi relies on robotic systems to handle Sahara files

SC has asked Sebi to refund money collected by two Sahara group firms to an estimated three crore investors

Flummoxed by the humongous task of sorting and verifying tonnes of investor papers received from Sahara group, market regulator Sebi has put them in a huge warehouse having 'automated robotic system' document handling and storage vaults.

In the high profile Sebi-Sahara case, the market regulator has been asked by the Supreme Court to refund the money collected by two Sahara group firms to an estimated three crore investors after verifying their investment documents and other credentials.

After Sahara firms were told to hand over these documents to Sebi, the group delivered 128 trucks containing more than 31,000 cartons of documents to the regulatory authority's headquarters here.

Finding it impossible to store such an amount of documents at any of its offices, Sebi decided to keep them at a warehouse of SHCIL Projects Ltd, a subsidiary of Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd, a senior official said.

The warehouse has automatic robotic systems for handing of documents and their storage in safe vaults, which would help the regulator in retrieving the documents faster as per the needs.

However, the verification of these documents may not be possible through the robotic systems as there might not be an uniformity in the format of these papers, the official added.

The warehouse, having 32 lakh cubit feet of storage capacity and located at Navi Mumbai, was originally built to store the physical share certificates of listed companies in the country when demat shares were not in vogue.

Now, SHCIL Projects Ltd boasts of numerous institutions including SBI, India Post and Sebi among others as its clients for various services like storage of physical documents, sorting and handling of important papers with automated robotic systems and even their conversion in electronic format.

As per the company, its automated robotic systems works with zero manpower intervention in the handling process.

To get rid of existing pest and other harmful objects, documents received at the warehouse are first put inside fumigating chambers and then placed inside its sophisticated automated systems which have a temperature, humidity and pest controlled environment.