Traffic on the Eastern Freeway came to a standstill for several hours on Saturday, after a major fire engulfed an oil depot located on the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) land at Wadala in north-central Mumbai. No causalities were reported in the fire that broke out at 4.46 pm at Castrol Oil depot, located adjacent to a pipeline carrying petrol belonging to the Bharat Petrol Company limited (BPCl).
Though the exact cause of fire has not been established yet, fire brigade sources said that a leakage developed in the BPCl pipeline, which passes in the vicinity of the Castrol Oil depot, must have contributed to the blaze. Soon after the fire was noticed at the Castor Oil depot, the BPCl authorities stopped the passage of petrol through their pipeline.
Nine water tenders belonging to the Mumbai fire brigade and one fire engine each of the MbPT, BPCl and Hindustan Petroleum Company limited (HPCl) rushed to the mishap site . The fight extinguishing operations were continuing well past 9.30 pm. Following the break-out of the fire, thick clouds of smoke enveloped the skies in the area surrounding the MbPT, which is located off the Eastern Freeway. Motorists passing the Eastern Freeway also report leaping flames emanating from the MbPT premises.
The 16.8 km Eastern Freeway is a controlled-access highway that links the P D’Mello Road in south Mumbai with the Eastern Express Highway at Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai. While the first 13.59 km stretch of the freeway, comprising two tunnels, from Orange Gate on PD’Mello Road up to Panjarpol, near RK Studios at Chembur was thrown open to traffic on April 12, 2014, the remaining stretch from Panjarpol to Ghatkopar-Mankhurd link Road (GMlR) was opened for traffic on June 16, 2014.
As a precautionary measure, the authorities diverted the traffic from the Eastern Freeway. The fire brigade personnel brought the fire under control at around 9.30 pm. “No one was injured in the mishap. The traffic on the Eastern Freeway was restored at around 9 pm,” an official at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run disaster control room said.