16 dead in southern India pipeline blast

HYDERABAD, India: A state-owned gas pipeline exploded early Friday, killing at least 14 people and sparking a massive fire that destroyed homes and forced the evacuation of neighboring villages in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, a state minister said.
“At least 16 people are dead. We have recovered 13 bodies so far,” State Home Minister N. Chinna Rajappa told AFP after the blast near a refinery in the East Godavari district.
He said the explosion occurred at about 5:30 a.m. in Nagaram, the site of a connecting station for the gas company.
The explosion sent flames shooting up into the pre-dawn sky. The fire burned for more than three hours before it was brought under control, Rajappa said.
“The extent of damage is being assessed,” he said.
Vandana Chanana, a top official of the state-run Gas Authority of India Ltd, said 15 others were injured in the fire, which “has been extinguished now and rescue operations are on.”
The injured had been taken to nearby hospitals where doctors said the condition of at least six of them was critical, company officials said.
Television pictures showed flames at least 10 meters high leaping into the dawn sky, scorching trees in a surrounding coconut grove and burning flimsy huts in the coastal area.
Company officials said it was too early to say what could have caused the blast, and in New Delhi, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters that the federal government has set up a panel to investigate the cause of the explosion. Nagaram residents said they had complained about the lack of maintenance of the gas pipelines, but their complaints were ignored.
“People are angry that GAIL authorities didn’t pay heed when they complained that the pipes had become rusty,” said Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu.
Witnesses said flames rose more than 80 feet into the air, scorching the tops of coconut and palm trees, and sending dense black clouds of smoke into the sky. Villagers ran out of their homes and crowded the streets of Nagaram. Scores of houses and shops were gutted, officials said.
Residents of neighboring villages were evacuated to safer areas, said East Godavari district collector Neetu Kumari Prasad.
Nagaram is about 560 km east of the state capital, Hyderabad.
Two weeks ago, six people were killed and 29 others injured in an explosion and a subsequent gas pipeline leak at India’s biggest government-run steel plant in the central Indian state of Chattisgarh.
The fire on the 18-inch pipeline owned by the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) was extinguished by mid-morning and the gas had been cut off, a senior administrative officer told AFP by telephone from the scene.
At least 15 people were hospitalized with injuries from the explosion, which occurred around 05:30 a.m. (0000 GMT), the company said, while the exact cause of the blast was not yet known.
“We are currently focused on rescue and relief operations,” GAIL chairman B.C. Tripathi was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.
GAIL is the country’s largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company and the damaged pipeline is used to transport pressurised natural gas for a power plant.
Witnesses contacted by phone told AFP that angry locals had entered an office belonging to GAIL near the site of the accident, pelting it with stones and vandalising property.
The Times of India newspaper said villagers had complained of negligence as the pipeline had become rusty, while other reports said a stove in the area might have ignited gas that had leaked from the structure.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had asked the petroleum minister and other senior officers to ensure immediate relief at the accident site.
“My thoughts with the families of those who lost their lives in the GAIL pipeline fire. Prayers with the injured,” he tweeted.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who rushed to the site of explosion, told reporters that an investigation had begun.
“Our first priority is to take care of the rescue, relief and restoration efforts there and to see that the fire does not flare up further,” he said.
The Andhra Pradesh government has ordered an enquiry and will set an action plan to avoid similar accidents in future, state Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said.
Earlier this month, six people were killed by a poisonous gas leak at one of India’s largest government-owned steel plants in central Chhattisgarh state.
But Friday’s incident was the most deadly to hit India’s energy sector since last August, when 28 people were killed in a fire at an oil refinery in nearby Vishakhapatnam, the largest city in Andhra Pradesh.
India’s biggest offshore gas fields are located in the Bay of Bengal to the east of Andhra Pradesh.