Hyderabad: Recovering from the gas leak which killed 12 and affected thousands of people in Visakhapatnam last week, the Andhra Pradesh government has directed LG Polymer to send back the huge stock of 13,000 tonnes of styrene, which had leaked last week, to South Korea.
Officials said that the process of loading the gas into two vessels has already started. “The process will be completed in about five days and it will be returned to South Korea,” district collector V. Vinay Chand told the Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy at a review meeting through video conference.
The operation was undertaken to remove any possibility of further leaks or accidents at the behest of the chief minister.
While 13,000 tonnes of styrene was being shipped back in two vessels of 8,000 and 5,000 tonnes capacity, the remaining substance in the local storage tanks was already neutralised or converted into 100% polymer by a team of experts and engineers.
The collector said the remaining gas in the plant was safe at a relatively cool temperature of 73 degrees Celsius and danger at the plant has subsidised.
Styrene gas had leaked in the wee hours of Thursday from one of the two storage tanks at the LP Polymers plant at Venkatapuram on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam creating panic and chaos in the area.
Relocation likely
The move to send back styrene to South Korea suggests that the government was studying the idea of relocating the hazardous plant away from the populated areas. When the plant was set up in 1961, the area was completely deserted but later settlements came up around the area.
The chief minister told the officials that no industrial unit would be reopened till its safety audit was completed. He also stressed the need for relocation of hazardous units and strict compliance of safety protocols of the central government.
As part of the measures, five state ministers and senior MP of YSR Congress Vijay Sai Reddy spent Monday night in the affected villages to reassure the people. One of the ministers, Avanthi Srinivas, also fed the cows in Venkatapuram village. However, the people are still reluctant to return to the village.
Five of the 12 bereaved families have already been handed over a cheque of Rs10 million (Dh486,000) each as ex gratia. The government is also paying Rs10,000 to every resident of the affected area as relief.
But the people were still not satisfied. Fresh protests broke out on Tuesday at the King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam where the gas affected people were undergoing treatment. The protestors alleged that though the victims had still not recovered from the effect of the gas, authorities had started discharging and sending them back to the villages.
