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Residents spooked in gas-hit Mangalore

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The gas cloud that hovered over the suburbs of the Mangalore City and areas around Kerala border towns on Friday, sparking fears of a disaster, appear to have been caused by a leaking valve on a LPG bullet trailer.

The officials of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), who have taken air samples, are expecting the report to be ready by Monday.

The cloud of gas led to widespread panic among the people of villages in the port town like Kulai, Baikampady, Kulur, Panambur, Yeyyadi and other places in Mangalore City Corporation limits. Many residents complained of nausea and visited hospitals and clinics.

There was widespread curiosity among residents, some of them visiting the the regional fire office to inquire about the cause of the incident.

“I had tough time explaining to them it was perhaps a leaking valve on the bullet tanker on the move and in any city that has large petroleum-related installations some or the other odours do emanate, but this time it was LPG which had rightly alarmed the local people. I have information that one of the tankers had stopped near Pumpwell Circle on the intersection of National Highways 75 and 66 for sometime without assigning any reason, but later it moved away, perhaps this was the tanker that had a leaking valve which its alert crew had quickly repaired and went their way,” regional fire chief HS Varadarajan told dna.

The panic that gripped the city was not without reason. The horror of a gas cloud igniting at Perne, about 50 kmfrom Mangalore city in April is still fresh in the minds of the people. That accident involved an LPG tanker crashing on to its side and sliding to a distance of 100 meters before bursting into a fireball. The gas that escaped the tanker had spread over a large area and ignited. The exploding tanker killed eight persons instantly, and three others died in the hospital of burns.

Experts in the petroleum sector say that gas clouds could travel miles together. What is more dangerous for Mangalore is the proximity of the Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemical Limited to Baikampady where the odour was strongest. Had the winds been blowing that way the cloud would have moved in that direction, seriously compromising on the safety.

The Karnataka Pollution Control Board officials along with engineers from the Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Limited also joined the ‘odour’ hunt. After three hours of checking in the petrochemicals complex, LPG storage facilities and petroleum storage tank farms in the industrial and port area, the officials found nothing.

After the Perne accident, tanker movement was closely monitored by authorities. But the tanker drivers are always in a mortal hurry to get the cargo to their destinations all across four states. They go great distances into Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Andhra Pradesh, carrying petroleum products including Naphtha, HSD, aviation spirit, petrol, kerosene, LPG and many other chemicals through densely-populated area. 

The longest distance recorded from Mangalore as a tanker travels is to Namakkal in Tamil Nadu, over 550 kilometers via Bangalore, but the same tanker after discharging its load it has to travel back immediately with a new driver back to Mangalore for yet another fill, leaving no time for maintenance of the trucks, say experts.

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