piped gas in hyderabad
TRANSCRIPT
SUNDAY 29 JUNE 2014 | 16 PAGES www.thehansindia.com
VENU K KODIMELA
How safe is the city? Thedeadly fire mishap in EastGodavari district that
claimed 16 lives after a gas leakraises questions over the piped gasdistribution in the city.
Ram Prasad, Assistant Professor,Malla Reddy Group of Institutions,said, “Similar fire accidents couldoccur on the outskirts of the city assome gated communities are pro-vided with Piped Natural Gas(PNG).”
He questions the safety standardsof the BGL as the gas pipe was laidabout 10 feet below the surface. Hesays the line passes over dhabasand other petty commercial estab-lishments in the vicinity.
Bhagyanagar Gas Limited(BGL), an ambitious joint ventureof HPCL and GAIL, commencedsupply of Piped Natural Gas(PNG) to households and com-pressed natural gas (CNG) to three-wheelers and four-wheelers in2011.
The project envisages laying of
pipelines from mother stations tothe houses on the outskirts of thecity. Today, hardly 1000 householdsare roped in against the target of4.66 lakh households by 2016. Thepipeline works are moving at snail’space due to short supply of gas.
“The BGL is supposed to informpeople about the underground gaspipeline and maintain emergency24/7 call centre to attend to theircomplaints,” says Vijay Kumar, a
resident of Kompally. Vijay Kumar, who was secretary
of his gated community, recalledthat the BGL did not return afterwe raised queries on safety. “BGLhas failed to allay our fears on firemishaps. We wanted to know thesteps to be taken in case of emer-gency. Then who will monitor the
pipelines? The BGL staff did notget back to us.”
The BGL pipeline along Med-chal highway can be identified withthe help of organge milestones andsign boards. The emergency num-bers mentioned on the milestonesand sign boards turned out to benumbers of BGL headquarters. Onweekends and holidays none re-sponds to the calls of the public.
The oil companies fail to respond
to emergency calls of the publiceven as the Union oil ministryblames lack of a statutory body forcarrying out safety audits of oil andgas installations across the country.
Suggested caption: UnattendedPiped Natural Gas (PNG) atJedimetla village junction on Med-chal highway.
Mother Station at Pet Basheerbagh
BGL has failed to allay our fears on firemishaps. We wanted to know the steps to betaken in case of emergency. Then who will
monitor the pipelines? The BGL staff did notget back to us
A protrudingPNG pipeline atJeedimetlavillage junction
City wakes up to dangers of piped gas
City wakes up to dangers of piped gas
PEOPLE SPEAKIf there are any issues in the city which are plaguing you which needs tobe brought to the notice of the concerned authorities, you can write toHyderabad Hans along with photographs. We will publish the same in our‘People Speak’ column. Do mail to us at [email protected],[email protected] or [email protected]. You can also sendletters to: Editor, The Hans India, Hyderabad Media House Limited, FlatNo 6, Anupuram Colony, Dr AS Rao Nagar, ECIL, Hyderabad- 500062.
-Editor