A day after a massive fire claimed five lives and gutted its equipment and products at the proposed BCG and Rotavirus vaccine manufacturing facility, Serum Institute of India (SII) on Friday pegged the losses suffered by it at Rs 1,000 crore, even as Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray visited the fire ravaged SII premises.
Addressing a joint news conference with the chief minister, SII’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Adar Poonawala said that there was no damage to the place where Covishield was manufactured and stored. “The mishap took place at a brand new facility. It was for the future production of BCG and Rotavirus,” he said.
“Equipment and products worth Rs 1,000 crore were damaged in the fire... The loss is mainly financial. There is no loss to supplies as such,” Poonawalla said.
Poonawala said that at the place where the fire broke out, “no actual vaccine was actually being produced there, so there was no damage to any vaccine”.
While the fire swept through the third and fourth floors of the upcoming facility in Manjari that was scheduled to become operational within a month, the Covishield Vaccine that is currently being manufactured at its other plant which is one km away.
The chief minister, accompanied by Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray, Deputy Chairperson of Maharashtra Legislative Council Neelam Gorhe, Pune MP Girish Bapat, visited the SII facility and met the company Chairman Cyrus Poonawalla and his son Adar.
Declining to comment on the progress of investigations into the circumstances leading to Thursday’s fire, Uddhav said: “We have ordered a thorough probe. There cannot be any conclusions till the full investigations are complete and the report is available. It is then we will know whether it was an accident or sabotage” the chief minister said.
The chief minister said that Poonawallas had repeatedly assured him that there would be no impact on the Covishield Vaccine production, stocks and rollout which would continue unhindered.
After the chief minister’s visit to the mishap-hit SII facility, Adar Poonwala tweeted: “Thank you Shri Uddhav Ji @CMOMaharashtraand @AUThackerayfor visiting @SerumInstIndiaand extending your help and support during this terrible crisis. As you have seen, the production of #COVISHIELD is on schedule and remains unaffected by this tragedy.
Meanwhile, the SII has announced a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the next of kin of each of the five labourers, including 3 migrants, killed in the blaze.
On his part, the chief minister said that if any more assistance was needed to be extended to the bereaved families, the state government would consider it.
In a related development, Pune’s Hadapsar Police have registered an accidental death, the Pune Municipal Corporation, Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation have launched simultaneous investigations into the fire.
It may be recalled that five persons were killed and others evacuated safely after a massive fire broke out in an under-construction building at the Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune on Thursday afternoon.
The fire, which broke out at around 2.30 pm, swept through the fourth and fifth floors of an under-construction building at Manjari, which is one kilometer away from the SII facility where Covid vaccines are being manufactured. Manjari is a complex in Special Economic Zone where SII’s half a dozen buildings are being constructed. The fire was brought under control within three hours.
The five deceased labourers were identified as Rama Shankar Harijan and Bipin Saroj, both from Uttar Pradesh, Sushil Kumar Pandey, who hails from Bihar and Mahendra Ingle and Pratik Pashte, both residents of Pune. All of them were contractual labourers. They were carrying out some electrical work at the site, when the mishap occurred.