Mounesh Vishwakarma

Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Apr 19: A loaded gas tanker tumbled by its side at Soorikumeru near Kalladka in the taluk on national highway 75 at around 1 am on Tuesday April 19. Gas started leaking from the tanker, after which over 50 houses in the vicinity were evacuated, and traffic on highway was blocked.

It is said that the tanker was carrying LPG after getting it filled at MRPL Mangaluru. The tanker, which was moving to Bengaluru, lost its balance when negotiating a road bend at Soorikumeru ostensibly because the tanker was moving at high speed.

The families living up to some distance from the distance woke up fearing the worst, as the tanker made a big sound as it banged into the road when it lost balance fell. Gas began to leak slowly thereafter, and covered the entire area soon. The locals immediately called the police station and fire brigade. Officials of both these departments reached the spot within sometime thereafter and took remedial measures.

The firemen sprayed water continuously on the nozzle of the gas tanker trolley, which had got separated from the front engine, to prevent the leakage from growing into major disaster. Over 70 firemen from seven fire brigades stationed in the town, Kadri and Pandeshwar, Mangaluru, Beltangady, Puttur etc worked the entire night. The gas continued to leak till 8 am. While many families went away on their own to escape from impending danger, the others were asked by policemen to shift to safer places.

Policemen from the town and rural stations and also from Vittal rushed to the spot and worked in tandem to provide relief. Traffic was blocked on the highway, and vehicles moving towards Puttur from Mangaluru were stopped at Kalladka and sent on Veerakmbha-Anantady-Kodaje route. Vehicles moving towards Mangaluru were stopped at Kabaka and diverted through Vittal. Vehicles coming from the direction of Uppinangady were stopped at Mani and sent on Anantady-Veerakmbha route.

Traffic police from here and Puttur have been working hard to provide a semblance of order to traffic chaos resulting from this accident. Senior fire officer, Shashidhar, divisional officer, Tippeswamy, and district fire brigade officer, G Shekhar, guided relief operations. Rural station house officer here, Rakshit, town station house officer, Nandakumar, and Vittal station house officer, Prakash Devadiga, have camped at the spot.