A routine valve repair on a gas pipeline suddenly turned out to be a nightmare of death because basic precautions were ignored
IT WAS a routine job of replacing the defective safety valve of the spare ammonia feed pump at the 15-year-old urea plant of the National Fertilisers Limited (NFL) at Panipat. Around 11.00 am on August 26, eight employees climbed the steps to the open-air ramp, which had been declared a "safe area" by the plant safety department, and began to replace the valve when the unthinkable happened. The bush of the suction valve that stops the gas flow from the mainline, gave way. Liquid ammonia burst out at the high pressure of 23 kg per sq cm, vapourising within seconds to form suffocating clouds of deadly gas. This hit and choked to death eleven persons and injured ten even as their colleagues sprung into action to diffuse the gas with water sprays.
Describing the nightmarish experience, Raj Kumar, a senior mechanical opoerator, said, "The initial splash of the liquid ammonia hit Lal Singh, our assistant shift engineer, directly in front of me. Instinctively, I turned the other way, took a deep breath, closed my eyes and began groping my way down the flight of stairs." Coughing and choking, with his lungs bursting, he scrambled for fresh air.
R D Sohal, senior public relations officer of the plant, explained, "Jobs with class 2 safety permits, as was the case here, are carried out in the open and hence the workers are not required to wear gas masks." According to officials, the permit is issued when the concerned pump is isolated -- both the inlet and outlet valves on the ammonia gas pipeline are closed and the pressure pump is emptied.
Narayanan said they would consider relocating the control room, which responded to the accident, farther away from its present site near where the disaster occurred. According to reports, even though the control room personnel were informed within seconds, they took some time to coordinate a response because they had also been affected by the leak.
Among the dead were casual labourers working nearby whose deaths were certainly avoidable. "We need to take extra precautions to ensure that workers other than those doing the hazardous task, are not present in the vicinity," he said. Other experts also point out that the work on the valve was sanctioned when there was obviously a large quantity of ammonia in the pipeline.
A highpowered committee, headed by Paul Pothen, a
former chairman of IFFCO and KRIBHCO, the two leading
fertilser cooperatives, has been set up to inquire into
the accident and to "fix responsibility if it was due to
any human failure," says S N Jain, chairman and managing
director.
But just 36 hours after the accident, the plant had
begun work again. Clearly, many questions about the
disaster remain. Panipat may have opened up a can of
worms about the lack of safety regulators, and even more
importantly, preventive maintenance Indian industry
continues to suffer.
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