Karnataka - Mangalore   

Blast at ISPRL fuel cavern site kills three

— PHOTO: R. ESWARRAJ

The ISPRL site near Bajpe in Mangalore where the blast took place on Thursday.

MANGALORE: Three persons, including a blasting expert from South Korea, were killed and at least four persons were injured when they were trying to defuse misfired detonators at the site of the under-construction petroleum reserve of the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Ltd. (ISPRL) at Kalavar village, near here, on Thursday evening.

The South Korean has been identified as Sang (40), according to a source. The other two were identified as Safety Officer Sirajuddin Katipalla, and worker Shivanand.

The underground cavern is being built by the ISPRL to store crude that could last 15 days during emergencies.

Rajan Pillai, Delhi-based Chief Executive Officer of ISPRL, said the experts had been handling the explosives outside the cavern. “Normally, considerable precaution is taken and I am surprised it happened. It is unexpected and unfortunate,” he said. According to a source, the South Korean mining engineer had the experience of handling two much bigger projects in his country. Two mining engineers, a safety officer and a worker were among the injured. They were brought to Mangalore Nursing Home in Kadri at 7.50 p.m. The injured were identified as Abdul Shaik Ghani (30), Shivnath Chauhan (35), Lawrence Katipalla (32), and Vikram Das (32) and were operated upon. Their condition was critical, manager of the hospital Rajesh Mali said.

Mr. Ghani is from Bajpe and Mr. Lawrence hails from Katipalla. The whereabouts of the other two were not known. The accident spot had been barricaded by the police. The blast occurred on a hillock, 150 metres away from workers' quarters.

Most workers at the site feigned ignorance about the blast and said they were asleep at that time.

Bajpe Gram Panchayat member Joachim D'Costa, who lives in the area, said he heard a blast at around 6 p.m.

First phase of project

The underground cavern project of the ISPRL is meant for strategic storage of crude oil, required to provide supplies during emergencies.

The project is now in the first stage, according to sources in the company.

The three-stage project work began in April 2009.

About 35 per cent of work on the underground cavern project had been completed, Mohandas Kamath, Director (Projects, NIG and Rich Infrastructure Private Limited), had said at a press meet in April.

The cavern, when built, can store crude oil to meet the country's petroleum needs for 15 days in case of an emergency.

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