At least six people became sick after chlorine gas on Saturday leaked from a water filtration plant of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation in Bagh Sewania area in Bhopal. No casualties were reported so far.
At the BMC’s Narmada water filtration plant situated at Ahmedpur, a cylinder weighing around 900 kg had arrived at the plant at around 2 pm. The gas is used at the plant for filtering the Narmada water.
The BMC has outsourced the work to Cheema Tech Company. As soon as the company staff lifted the cylinder with the help of a crane, its valve got open and the gas leakage started. Within seconds, the employees faced problems in breathing and they left the place and within a few minutes, the houses in nearby areas got vacated.
Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) Raman Singh Sikarwar said that chlorine gas leaked from the Narmada water filtration plant of the civic body in Bag Sevania area which resulted in panic. No injuries were reported.
The plant is situated close to the office of Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP), Misrod area.
As the gas spread in the area its smell caused uneasiness among the residents but so far no report of anyone falling sick because of the leakage was reported from the area, the DIG said, adding that the situation is under control.
To check the gas leakage, around 20 fire-fighters from the BMC headquarters reached the site, but in haste they did not carry any safety equipments and so fire brigade employees Iftekhar, Pramod Shukla, Puneet, Asim Khan and Vinod Agnihotri got affected. The condition of Iftekhar and Pramod was reportedly serious.
Notably, the Capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal, is infamous because of leakage of poisonous gas from the Union Carbide plant on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 that killed and maimed a large number of persons.