5 milk plant workers hospitalised in Virar as second gas leak in 2 days hits industrial region
Coming just a day after a pharmaceutical leak forced the evacuation of 2,600 people in Boisar, this was the sixth such incident in the Palghar-Virar industrial belt within a year.
The gas leak happened inside a factory in Ludhiana’s Industrial Area-A (Representative Image) Five workers were hospitalised Tuesday following an ammonia gas leak at a milk plant in Virar in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). This incident marked the second major gas leak in the MMR within 48 hours, highlighting a worrying trend of industrial safety lapses in the Palghar-Virar industrial belt.
The latest leakage occurred in the afternoon at the plant situated at Kaner Phata while workers were performing routine maintenance on the refrigeration system. Officials said that after the leak, the fire brigade was deployed, and the situation was contained immediately. Meanwhile, five workers who had inhaled toxic gases were promptly taken to a nearby hospital.
Authorities have issued a prohibitory order, shutting down the plant. The management must now conduct a thorough cleanup and obtain a new safety audit from a third-party agency before resuming operations.
“For the time being, the management will have to immediately clean up the premises by deploying the minimum number of workers. And once the cleaning up is completed, a third-party agency should freshly audit all the equipment, and based on the audit certificate, clearance for starting operations will be issued,” an official said.
Earlier, on Monday, a chemical leakage was reported in Palghar’s Boisar area in a pharmaceutical company, which prompted the authorities to evacuate over 2,600 people, including children.
The incident on Tuesday was the sixth gas leakage in the Palghar-Virar area in the last 12 months. Previously, gas leakage incidents were reported from the Palghar, Boisar, and Virar areas in March, August, and November of last year. In the August incident, four workers lost their lives while two others were seriously injured.
Officials say there is no single reason behind the recurring incidents but point to the heavy concentration of chemical industries in the region.
Tarapur and Boisar together form one of Maharashtra’s oldest and largest industrial estates, housing a large number of chemical, pharmaceutical and allied manufacturing units operating in close proximity. Because many hazardous processes take place within a relatively small area, the probability of accidents involving gases, chemicals or industrial spills increases.
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