Gas leak-hit Visakhapatnam limps back to normal

Hyderabad: After a day of panic and chaos triggered by the leak of a poisonous chemical gas from the LG Polymer plant left a dozen people dead and 1,000 others sick, the situation in Visakhapatnam was limping back to normalcy on Friday.

The toll in the worst industrial accident in the industrial hub of Andhra Pradesh climbed to 12 with one more patient succumbing on Friday.

However, the condition of the other 300-odd affected people was improving and nobody was on ventilator now, Andhra Medical College head Dr PV Sudhakar said. The dead included two children and a first year medical student.

316 people were under treatment in various hospitals, including 193 in King George Hospital, officials said.

Officials declared the situation “under control” on Friday after a team of experts carried out overnight operation by using PTBC, a chemical antidote to the styrene gas.

500kg of PTBC was brought by a special aircraft last night from Surat in Gujarat to Visakhapatnam to neutralise the effect of the gas. The team which carried out the operation included chemical disaster experts of National Disaster Relief Force, scientists from the Council of Indian Scientific Research and engineers and experts from various agencies.

The antidote, which reached late in the night, had to be brought from outside the state as local efforts by the LG Polymer team had not fully succeeded in controlling the situation. Vapour continued to be discharged from the plant in the night triggering fresh round of panic and exodus of people from a larger perimeter around the plant.

As strong smell continued to add to the anxiety, the rumours of fresh gas leakage forced the people from many villages to flee to far off places. Hundreds of families from areas like Simhachalam, Gopalapatnam and Pinagadi took to their heels. However, around midnight the police teams went around denying rumours of fresh leakage.

Gautam Sawang, Director General of Police, said: “The evacuation was done from a larger perimeter last night as a precaution but now the area is absolutely safe.”

Situation under control

RK Meena, Visakhapatnam city police commissioner, said the situation was under control and there was no need for the residents of areas other than the five villages in close proximity to go anywhere.

Experts were closely monitoring the air quality and smell in the area.

State minister Gautam Reddy appealed to the residents of the five affected villages to be patient for 48 hours as attempts were being made to bring the gas effect in the air to zero. About 2,000 residents of these villages were accommodated in various shelter camps by the administration.

As the strong effect of Styrene gas, which is used in manufacturing plastics, left the people and authorities shell shocked and also exposed the lack of preparedness of the administration to deal with such eventualities. Questions were also being raised about the industrial safety measures, especially in hazardous industries in Visakhapatnam, a home to dozens of such plants.

Environmentalists and politicians have demanded that stringent action be taken against the management of LG Polymer, owned by South Korean company LG Chem.

The National Green Tribunal of the federal government has ordered LG Polymer Ltd to pay an interim fine of Rs 500 million (Dh25 million) pending the probe into how the poisonous chemical gas leaked from its Visakhapatnam plant.

Probe team constituted

The tribunal headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goyal has constituted a five-member committee to probe the incident which led to the evacuation of 10,000 people from the areas surrounding the plant at Venkatapuram, the industrial suburb of Visakhpatnam. The committee comprising experts has been asked to submit its report by May 18.

The tribunal order said that the amount of interim fine was fixed on the basis of the loss of life so far.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has demanded that the plant be closed due to the failure of the administration to follow the rules and regulations.

Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, who visited the city on Thursday and met the affected people, said: “If need be will consider the relocation of the plant.”