Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (MS)

Puttur, Nov 4: In an incident that occurred on the morning of Monday, November 4 at Karvel near Uppinangady of the taluk, the overhead valve of the gas tanker got opened suddenly and gas in copious amounts got leaked. There was panic in the area due to this mishap.

The tanker belonging to Total Gas company was carrying gas from Mangaluru to Hassan. When it reached Karvel at around 8 am on Monday, the top valve of the tanker got opened suddenly and the gas started escaping into the atmosphere in huge amounts. As a precaution, announcement was made from the Karvel mosque not to light any fire. All the residents near the spot of gas leak were shifted to safer place.

Uppinangady police and emergency squad of gas control from HPCL reported to the spot and controlled the leakage after putting in efforts for more than one and a half hours.

Locals had informed Puttur fire service personnel as soon as the leakage was noticed but they did not respond in time. When they reached the spot, the operation of leakage control was long over. The public has expressed outrage on the irresponsible behaviour of the fire service personnel, who took one and a half hour to reach the spot, which is just 12 km away from the fire station.

Vehicular traffic was affected on NH 75 on which this incident occurred. Once the leakage was brought under control, it was restored back to normalcy.