Red alert at Gujarat's Kandla oil terminal

The Kandla oil terminal, the country’s biggest petroleum depot, has been put on red alert following intelligence reports that it could be attacked by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

“We have been put on high alert,” KS Rao, senior terminal manager of IOC at Kandla, told DNA on Sunday. “We received a terror alert from our headquarters which was warned by the Union home ministry that the LeT might attack the Kandla oil terminal.” The terminal is located at old Kandla in Kutch district.

Rao is also the spokesman and co-ordinator of all the three public sector oil companies — the IOC, BPC and HPC — which store their petroleum and highly inflammable petro products at the oil terminal.

“We immediately contacted the district police and other security agencies concerned,” Rao said.

“The police and the security agencies immediately heightened security at all the oil and gas installations of the three public sector oil companies.” Petroleum, natural gas and other petro products stored at Kandla meet the requirements of the entire north-west of the country.

Rao said that, on Sunday, all the 2,000 personnel of the three oil companies posted at Kandla (including senior officers) were given special training in how to deal with the emergency of a terror attack.