A team of officials from the Forensic Science Laboratory visited Muneshwara Layout to ascertain the cause of an explosion that caused injuries to four children on Tuesday night. The blast occurred near a site where Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) workers had allegedly taken up work next to a GAIL gas pipeline.
On Thursday, the Chief Secretary met senior officials from GAIL and civic agencies. According to sources who attended the meeting, Bescom was asked to bear the cost of the damage and take care of the medical expenses of the victims. The police suspect negligence on the part of the contractor who was drilling close to the pipeline.
“As per the guidelines, a minimum of 350 mm width has to be maintained from gas pipes while conducting any type of digging work, but this was not followed,” said a senior GAIL official, who attended the meeting.
The gas pipelines have been marked and are well-mapped, but this has not prevented a spate of accidents. Over the last six months, the GAIL pipeline network has been damaged at least six times by various agencies or private companies while digging roads.
It’s also mandatory for GAIL to be alerted every time an agency or private company undertakes digging work next to a pipeline so that they can inspect and supervise the work. “However, none of these guidelines were followed,” the official added.
Timely action by one of the residents in the layout, Srinivas, an electrician by profession, averted a tragedy. He detected a strong smell of gas in their bathroom and immediately vacated the house with his daughter and wife, and also alerted their neighbours.
“We will determine what action to take after we get the FSL report,” said a police officer.
GAIL technical team was attending to another leak
According to an official, at the time of the explosion, the technical team of GAIL was attending to another leakage allegedly caused by BWSSB contractors working on a manhole three kilometres away from the site of the explosion. Workers had damaged a pipeline while using a JCB to dig up a manhole chamber.
