The residents of West Delhi's Tikri Kalan village have sought intervention of the Delhi High Court seeking relocation of a petroleum depot located dangerously close to their houses posing a threat to their lives.

The depot is owned by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation limited (HPCl). The High Court had earlier stayed the operations at the depot which was challenged by the petroleum company. The court is expected to hear the matter on July 24.

The villagers, who have been running from pillar to post for over two years now, to get the storage tanks of HPCl shifted, filed a petition in the High Court. In the petition they contended that they are in the risk zone in case of fire or explosion.

A villager said, "The storage depot is at a distance of 440 metres from where we live, with boundary walls being only 55 metres away, putting our lives at risk." the High Court is likely to hear the plea on July 24.

The petition, filed by Harish Chander, a retired schoolteacher and resident of Tikri Kalan, alleged that the petroleum storage tanks have been installed in the vicinity of this village, despite serious danger of chemical disaster.

Citing the Jaipur fire incident of 2009 that killed 11 people, the petition said, "Jaipur fire broke out at the fuel depot of Indian Oil Corporation limited (IOCl) and continued for almost two weeks till the entire fuel was consumed. In MB lal's report, filed after the incident, it was recommended that delay in containing fire would increase the radius of the impact significantly. The same logic applied to Tikri Kalan."

According to lal's report, filed by the former chairman of HPCl, "Any leak, if contained within eight minutes, would have an impact zone of 200 metres from the point of ignition of any vapour cloud, but any delay would increase the radius of the impact zone."

Chander has filed the plea through advocate Indira Unniyar, on behalf of the villagers, seeking directions from the court to restrain HPCl from operating the petroleum depot at Tikri Kalan and shift it to a safe distance of a minimum of 10-15 km from the village.

"The village has a population of over a lakh. If an explosion occurs, there will be a huge loss to life and property. We have been trying to stop this depot from operating near us, but the Government authorities have remained ignorant," said Chander.

The petition has been filed against the Delhi Government, HPCl, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Petroleum Explosives Safety Organization (PESO), Ministry of Environment and Forests and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DDPC) among others. 

The plea also seeks directions from the Delhi Government to identify an alternate land at a safe distance from populated areas and "quash the consent orders, if any, issued by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC)."