Vizag Gas Leak: NDRF Team on Spot, Investigation On

Gas fumes started leaking again out of the tank at LG Polymers chemical plant in Visakhapatnam in the wee hours of Friday after 22 hours of a gas leak on Thursday morning claiming 11 lives and hundreds fell sick. The gas leak also led to a mass evacuation of the neighboring settlements.

Gas fumes started leaking again out of the tank at LGPolymers chemical plant in Visakhapatnam in the wee hours of Friday after 22hours of gas leak on Thursday morning claiming 11 lives and hundreds fell sick.The gas leak also led to a mass evacuation of the neighboring settlements.

According to officials, it is still not safe for theevacuees to return home for another two days. A special NDRF team from Pune isleading the operation and will also investigate the cause of gas leakage.

Police Commissioner of Visakhapatnam RK Meena, whilequoted by news agency ANI said that people living beyond a 2-km radius of thechemical [plant need not evacuate or come out of the house and they need notpanic.

"It is still leaking. Gas vapours are coming outcausing uneasiness to the local people. A five-kilometre radius from the spot,people is being evacuated now," Vishakhapatnam Fire Officer Surendra Anand hadsaid around midnight on Friday. He had further added that buses are beingarranged to ferry them to the homes of their relatives or friends outside ofthe risk zone.

Responding to a question about the fumes leading to anexplosion, Surendra Anand had also said that no such explosion was reportedeither on Thursday morning or Thursday night.

The fire department and NDRF were requesting people toevacuate the area as a safety precaution. The process of evacuation wasunderway in Adavivaram in Gopalapatnam area as per latest inputs.

A special Air India cargo flight has now brought PTBC(para-tertiary butyl catechol) from Gujarat to Visakhapatnam for the purpose ofneutralising the gas leak at the chemical plant.

In fact, ten additional fire tenders, including twofoam tenders were reportedly rushed to the chemical plant while ambulances werekept on standby to deal with any medical emergencies.

Gas fumes started leaking again out of the tank at LG Polymers chemical plant in Visakhapatnam in the wee hours of Friday after 22 hours of gas leak on Thursday morning claiming 11 lives and hundreds fell sick. The gas leak also led to a mass evacuation of the neighboring settlements.

According to officials, it is still not safe for theevacuees to return home for another two days. A special NDRF team from Pune isleading the operation and will also investigate the cause of gas leakage.

Police Commissioner of Visakhapatnam RK Meena, whilequoted by news agency ANI said that people living beyond a 2-km radius of thechemical [plant need not evacuate or come out of the house and they need notpanic.

"It is still leaking. Gas vapours are coming out causing uneasiness to the local people. A five-kilometer radius from the spot, people are being evacuated now," Vishakhapatnam Fire Officer Surendra Anand had said around midnight on Friday. He had further added that buses are being arranged to ferry them to the homes of their relatives or friends outside of the risk zone.

Responding to a question about the fumes leading to anexplosion, Surendra Anand had also said that no such explosion was reportedeither on Thursday morning or Thursday night.

The fire department and NDRF were requesting people to evacuate the area as a safety precaution. The process of evacuation was underway in Adavivaram in the Gopalapatnam area as per the latest inputs.

A special Air India cargo flight has now brought PTBC (para-tertiary butyl catechol) from Gujarat to Visakhapatnam for the purpose of neutralizing the gas leak at the chemical plant.

In fact, ten additional fire tenders, including twofoam tenders were reportedly rushed to the chemical plant while ambulances werekept on standby to deal with any medical emergencies.