BENGALURU: On average, at least one gas pipeline leakage is reported in Bengaluru city every three days, a GAIL (India) official said on Friday. The admission comes a day after two women and a man were injured when a leaking gas pipeline led to blasts in three houses in Sector 7 of HSR Layout.
While two of the injured have been discharged, the third, a 48-year-old woman identified as Liakath Anjum, is still undergoing treatment at Victoria Hospital. She is critical, a relative said.
The blasts occurred in the three houses after gas entered their toilets through sewer lines. An earthmover operator had damaged a gas pipeline passing through a manhole near the victims' house during maintenance work and fled after filling it up with mud. Soon, the gas found its way into the nearby homes. This is the second piped natural gas (PNG) blast in the city. The first incident was reported in Singasandra in 2018.
PNG supply began in Bengaluru in 2016.
Confirming that the city is seeing at least 1 PNG leakage every 3 days, deputy general manager (DGM), operation and maintenance, GAIL (India) Ltd, Ravikumar Rebba said these leakages are fixed quickly to prevent tragedies, but it's indeed a safety concern if agencies like BWSSB or Bescom do not report the damage and take up repair works without obtaining permission.
GAIL has sent a standard operation procedure to agencies, mandating that they take the company's permission before commencing work. South Bengaluru has PNG pipelines spanning 1,600km.
Rebba said in a city like Bengaluru, damages keep happening but GAIL is competent enough to fix the same. However, on Tuesday, he claimed the ignorance of BWSSB, which failed to inform GAIL about the gas leakage, resulted in the tragedy. It's a major safety concern when government agencies ignore such leakages, he said.
BWSSB chief engineer (south), SV Venkatesh said officials had decided to take permission to lay a new pipeline in the same area and in this case, they were only attending to minor repair work of the manhole. Venkatesh, however, admitted that as per the SOP, permission is mandatory. "But why did they (GAIL) lay a gas pipeline through a manhole," he questioned and added the agency will be extra cautious in future.
Sandeep Anirudhan, a civic activist, said gas leakages are common but draw eyeballs only when there are tragic consequences. The problem lies with not integrating multiple agencies with BBMP. The 74th amendment to the Constitution clearly talks about integration, absence of which results in lack of coordination, he added.
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