JAIPUR, April 21: The Home Ministry has taken seriously the incident of fire in the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) of the HPCL Rajasthan Refinery (HRRL) in Pachpadra, on Monday. The incident forced the authorities to postpone Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit, for the inauguration of the mega plant, on Tuesday.
According to official sources here, the Ministry of Home Affair (MHA) has decided to send a special “fact finding team of the Ministry’s officers” to the refinery to look into the causes and the circumstances of the fire even as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has initiated probe in the incident at the newly built largest refinery-cum-petrochemical complex of the country.
A team of NIA officials landed in Pachpadra by a BSF helicopter at the helipad in the vicinity of the refinery on Tuesday afternoon and went straight to the incident site at the CDU unit of the plant. The investigating team inspected the location, took stock of the situation, and reviewed and scrutinised the equipment and components.
Refinery authorities and district officers were also present there to provide feedback.
Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma also reached there to take stock of the situation.
He also held prolonged parleys with the Chief Secretary V Srinivas, Director General of Police (DGP) Rajiv Sharma, and the refinery’s higher management. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joga Ram Patel and MoS for Skill Development Minister K K Vishnoi were also present.
A massive fire broke out Monday afternoon in the crude distillation unit (CTU), about one kilometer away from the venue of the scheduled inauguration ceremony and the PM’s public meeting.
The incident, ahead of the PM’s mega programme on Tuesday, created panic for a short while. However, many fire brigade units parked there for a high-profile programme and the VVIP visit, gave a bit of a sigh of relief as they immediately swung into action to put out flames.
The refinery staff also switched on the fire safety system of the plant to control flames. These efforts almost controlled the fire in 45 minutes; however, it took more than an hour to completely extinguish the flames.
The Prime Minister’s visit and the inaugural ceremony were later postponed until the announcement of the new date.
The probable cause of the fire is believed to be leakage of “hydrocarbons” from a valve. It took engineers about an hour to plug the leakage. However, the actual reason for the fire was still to be ascertained.
(UNI)
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