PCMC, Bharat Gas officials plug gas tanker leak

Staff of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), along with officials from the Bharat Gas plant at Shikrapur, managed to control a major cooking gas leak four hours after a gas tanker crashed into a tree at Phugewadi and started leaking LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas) at 4am on Tuesday.

The accident took place near Mega Mart, Phugewadi, on Mumbai-Pune National Highway-4. It was attended to by the tanker’s driver, Bhosari police, PCMC fire brigade department and disaster management cell and officials from Bharat Gas.

Bharat Gas assistant manager Mahesh Jangam told DNA, “The tanker was carrying 15 tonnes of LPG and failure to control the leak could have resulted in a major tragedy in a 1.5-km radius.”

The tanker was proceeding from Mumbai to Solapur.

Its driver, Jaiprakash, immediately pulled the vehicle aside and tried to plug the leak by using wet jute sacks on a damaged valve.

A police patrol alerted the fire brigade, which rushed six fire tenders. The Bharat Gas officials decided to shift the tanker to an open ground of the College of Military Engineering (CME). The leak was finally sealed at 9.30am.

Fire officer Kiran Gawade told DNA, “Traffic flowing from Pune to Mumbai was diverted via Dapodi and traffic from Mumabi to Pune was diverted via Nashik Phata for four hours as the road was blocked after the accident.”

After the leakage was stopped, the tanker was taken to Bharat Gas’ Shikrapur plant, led by a police van and followed by a fire tender.