Image Courtesy: AP
After responses from various stakeholders regarding the Vizag gas leak came in, the High Powered Committee (HPC) constituted to probe the cause behind the LG Polymers gas leak which claimed 12 lives, said it will have an interaction with the affected groups in the next few days, The New Indian Express reported.
The HPC was constituted by the government on May 8 and was headed by Special Chief Secretary (Environment and Forests) Neerabh Kumar Prasad and four other members including Special Chief Secretary (Industries & Commerce Department) R Karikal Valaven, Visakhapatnam District Collector Vinay Chand and Visakhapatnam City Police Commissioner RK Meena as members and AP Pollution Control Board member-secretary Vivek Yadav as the member-convener to probe the reasons for the mishap which killed 12 persons.
The committee till now held discussions with Director, Indian Institute of Petroleum, Visakhapatnam and several others. It also visited the site of the mishap and closely examined the industry premises along with the Director, IIP, Dehradun and industry experts. The HPC also conducted a detailed examination at the storage tank site, control room and factory premises.
On Monday, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the health teams who were involved in relief operations there and also three environmental and scientific experts in the field were asked to give their views to the HPC.
The State government has also deployed four teams to inspect safety norms in all the 20 hazardous industries in the Visakhapatnam district. Speaking to TNIE, HPC member R Karikal Valaven said that the team comprising officials from industries, factories, boilers and pollution control board and two professors (experts) would inspect five hazardous industries each. “Starting Monday, each team would inspect five industries and submit a report to the government on Thursday. On Friday, we will go through the reports and take a decision,” he added.
The Andhra Pradesh government has granted a compensation of Rs. 1 crore to the kin of eight out of the twelve deceased in the incident.
Still not out of danger
Experts said that had the violation of safety norms at the LG Polymers factory gone unnoticed for a few more days, a catastrophe would be inevitable. Deccan Chronicle reported that experts found that there were other storage facilities at the factory that were vulnerable to a leak of vapour on a larger scale.
Two of the experts deputed by the Centre had certified that styrene was stored in a high-risk present condition at the factory. On Monday, the Andhra Pradesh government on Monday directed the company to immediately take 13,000 metric tonnes (MT) of material out of the country. Accordingly, the state government arranged, with the help of the Union Shipping Ministry, a vessel to carry 8000 MT to the company’s HQ LG Chem Ltd. in Seoul. Another vessel is being arranged to ship 5000 MT out of the factory. This process is said to be completed in 3 – 4 days, a press release from the Chief Minister’s office said.
Two experts deputed by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Dr. Anjan Ray, director of the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Shantanu Geete, an industry expert, inspected the storage facilities at the Vizag port premises, DC reported.
A senior official said, “It was noticed that polymerization has just begun in another storage facility on the factory premises.”
The experts also visited the storage facility in the port and found out that not all technical and safety parameters were being followed. Dr Ray, who is an expert on styrene, recommended to the government that material from both the factory and the port should immediately cleared.
“The preliminary conclusion is that the storage facilities were not designed to keep the material for a long duration. The plant personnel claimed that the material is emptied every 10-15 days and never stored more than that,” industries minister M Goutham Reddy told the publication.
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