Mumbai Port Trust sets up panel to probe chlorine gas leak

Even as efforts are on to neutralise chlorine tonners, the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) has appointed a one-member committee to probe the cause of Wednesday's chlorine gas leak.

MbPT Deputy Chairman Shrikant Singh, who constitutes the committee, will submit his report within a week.

Experts claim that negligence on the part of the MbPT and the Customs department led to the accident. Government sources told

The Hindu that the storage of such hazardous material was in clear violation of the Manufacture, Storage, Handling, Import of Hazardous Chemicals rules.

“Agencies like the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board should already have issued notices to the MbPT,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity. The tonners (containing 900 kg gas) and cylinders (containing 100 kg gas) had been lying at the hazardous goods storage facility at Haji Bunder since 1997. The Pollution Control Board issued notice to the MbPT on Wednesday.

Officials denied that there was fresh gas leak on Thursday. An MbPT spokesman told The Hindu that some odour that emanated was part of the “controlled dissipation mechanism.” “There is an odour when the gas is mixed with the caustic solution. There is no leakage whatsoever.”

The neutralisation process is on under the supervision of the Chairperson and the Deputy Chairperson of the MbPT.

“Chlorine is made to pass through a caustic soda solution. The gas gets neutralised and soda bleach [hypochlorite solution] is formed. This liquid can be used for other industrial production,” Babji Chaudhary, Safety, health and environment manager at Century Rayon, told The Hindu .