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Blowout sends panic waves

B.V.S. Bhaskar

Fire will be brought under control in ten days, says ONGC Asset Manager Blowout sends panic waves

IMMENSE DAMAGE: Smoke billowing from a well at Tandavapalli village in Amalapuram, East Godavari district, on Thursday.

AMALAPURAM: "It is ONGC blowout. It's like Pasarlapudi," said a rickshaw puller Chander Rao. He was directing this reporter to the site of the blowout on Thursday afternoon in Tandavapalli village. Chander Rao said he had seen the Pasarlapudi blowout and said, "They say it is as big as that one."

Unperturbed by the blowout, a Telugu Desam Party leader who was campaigning for the Municipal Elections in Amalapuram town, 7 km from the blowout site, "Blowouts happen in this region. It is no great shakes. But, Municipal Elections can't wait."

But not many were as nonchalant as the TDP leader. People in large numbers rushed to the village, making travel on the slushy rural road to the site almost impossible. The traffic crawled at a snail's pace in spite of the hectic efforts of a few policemen along the route to streamline it. The intermittent rain made matters worse.

Route to be blocked

The Superintendent of Police, V. Naveen Chand, said that the district administration would block the route to the site from Friday except for the ONGC staff, officials and journalists.

A.A. Khan, Asset Manager of ONGC, Rajahmundry, exuded confidence and expressed the hope that the blowout would be brought under control within ten days.

The Crisis Management Team (CMT) and equipment would be mobilised from Narasapuram of West Godavari district. "We are fortunate that the CMT is under the Rajahmundry Asset and K. Satyanarayana, leader of the CMT is rated to be one of the best in dealing with blowouts. We have advanced far from the days of the Pasarlapudi blowout a decade ago, during which also Mr. Satyanrayana figured prominently."

Though the ONGC officials gave the reassuring news in the evening that the blowout was not of the same intensity as Pasarlapudi, it did cause a lot of panic in the villages, when it occurred.

"We heard the deafening noise and the crimson flame in the sky. I could not understand what was happening," recalled Satyanarayana of Vinichintalapudi village.

Venkatalakshmi of Tandavapalli, who was evacuated from the village to the rehabilitation camp, expressed her apprehensions and anguish. "We don't know how long it will last and how long we will have to stay in the camp.

Pasarlapudi blowout lasted more than a month.

We hope this one will be over in few days".

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