Disaster warning: Mumbai could be sitting on a gas bomb

Two days after the chlorine leak incident at the Mumbai Port Trust’s (MbPT) Haji Bunder hazardous cargo warehouse, reports of other warehouses in the city storing uncleared gas-filled cylinders have emerged. The transporters and dock workers union (TDWU) has claimed that gas cylinders have been lying at the New Sewri and Wadala INC warehouses too.

The TDWU said that 42 cylinders imported on November 20, 2000, have been lying at the Wadala plot, and 36 cylinders from a consignment dated November 8, 2000, are uncleared at the New Sewri warehouse. According to TDWU secretary RM Murthy, the information has been sourced from the MbPT’s records.
SR Kulkarni, TDWU head, and a trustee with MbPT, demanded that these cylinders be disposed off immediately to avoid any more gas leaks. Kulkarni wrote to a letter, demanding action, to MbPT chairman Rahul Asthana on Friday.

Even while an inventory is now being prepared of both hazardous and non-hazardous cargo at various port sites, MbPT officials insisted that most of the cylinders referred to by TDWU were empty. But, officials did not completely rule out the possibility of some cylinders containing gas.

TDWU attributed the delay in clearing sensitive cargo to lack of facilities inside the port trust premises and outdated laws. “The degassing of the chlorine cylinders is required before the delivery of goods. The port trust premises, however, lacks any machinery or procedure to carry it out,” said Kulkarni.

He added that there was a need to amend procedures, arrange periodical meetings of all stakeholders, and fill up vacancies to expedite the process. A senior port official conceded that the Wadala site had literally become a junkyard of uncleared cargo, mostly non-hazardous. Even Srikant Singh, deputy chairman, MbPT, agreed with Kulkarni and said there was a need to redraft procedures to smoothen the clearance process.

Offshore operations
In the meanwhile, efforts to neutralise the remaining five gas-filled cylinders at the Haji Bunder site continued on Friday. SA Ahmad, assistant commandant, National Disaster Response Force, said the process of neutralisation of gas in three cylinders was almost complete and the operations will shift offshore — 30km from the shore — on Saturday morning.

“The valves, meant for the intake and release of chlorine had stopped operating in one of the two remaining cylinders. The agencies involved have now decided to drill a hole in the cylinder. With the possibility that this might cause a leak, authorities are evaluating the option of shifting the exercise in high seas,” he added. The options of on-site operations, or transporting the cylinder to a remote place were rejected for safety reasons.