Mangalore, October 17: The Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim speaking at a meeting organised by District Disaster Management Authority and Disaster Control Group on disaster management here on October 16th, Thursday , has directed the Mangalore Airport Authority to take a formal request letter from Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), Special Economic Zone (SEZ), and ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited (OMPL), and pronounce ‘No fly zones’ in those areas.
The officials of Airport Authority said that there is no provision to ban flying over MRPL and such major decisions can be taken only at the center. Moreover, it is not an issue as MRPL is not a flying zone.
The Deputy Commissioner was not convinced by the answer and opined that if any air crash occurs above the MRPL area, it would lead to a great disaster. It would greatly increase the loss of lives and property at the industrial area, he said.
Discussing about the oil contingency plan, the New Mangalore Port Trust Pollution Control Board members complained that MRPL is delaying signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on controlling the oil leakage and points at other oil companies. However, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) official said that the share of MRPL in the crude oil import is around 97%. The DC directed MRPL official to sort out this issue within a month. Meanwhile, a MRPL official requested the DC to ban fishing around 500 metre near Single Point Mooring (SPM) pipeline of the company in off the Mangalore coast. However, the DC did not appreciate the need for this now.
K G Nanjappa, Deputy Director of factories, Boilers, Industries Security and Health Department said that there are 11 major accident hazard units. Benzene and Paraxylene units will start working at SEZ soon. The Benzene and Paraxylene units in OMPL are largest in the world. Benzene can cause Cancer. The employees ought to undergo medical check-ups on a regular basis. The OMPL official said that all kind of safety measures are adopted to avoid chemical leakage.
Nanjappa said that the emergency control unit at the DC office should be strengthened for controlling and manipulating the emergency situations. It needs a separate room, dedicated man power who can work in shifts and equipment too.
He said that industries should have adequate stock of Brine solution which contains Sodium Bicarbonate which can be used as neutraliser.
D C A B Ibrahim charged an engineer because in-spite of warnings Mangalore City Corporation has stored around 3,600 kgs of Chlorine at Tumbe.
During this meet, Assistant Deputy Commissioner Sadashiva Prabhu, Additional Superintendent of Police Shivakumar and Zilla Panchayat Deputy Secretary Umesh were present.
