Mulund road cordoned off after gas leak

Mumbai: Following a leakage from a gas pipeline in Mulund on Sunday morning, the Mumbai fire brigade cordoned off the area around Madan Mohan Malviya Marg in Mulund (west) for an hour. No other untoward incident was noticed, and no injuries were reported.

A major 32-mm high-pressure PNG gas pipeline developed a hole, leading to massive gas leakage about 11.50 am on Sunday.  The fire brigade received an update from an unknown caller at about 12 and pressed three fire engines to the spot. A fire brigade official from the Mulund fire brigade said, “As soon as we received the call, we cordoned off the area. We first switched off the main valve of the pipeline, and called Mahanagar gas officials to the spot. We didn’t allow any vehicle in the area, and all paan and bidi shops were asked not to use lighters or light match sticks.”

Some residents of the building closest to the leakage were asked to switch their gas cylinders off, and not use electric equipment. Residents of buildings in the immediate vicinity were also asked to come downstairs, out of their houses for 15-20 minutes. The fire brigade official quoted above said, there was no immediate danger, but the above things were done as a precautionary measure.

The pipeline is underground, and was damaged when some workers were digging the area for construction work. The official said, “The fire brigade is always aware of locations of such pipelines. We don’t know who called, so we don’t know who is responsible for damaging the gas pipeline. We don’t know the extent of the damage or the dimensions of the hole, as we handed over the area to Mr Banana Dangle from the Mahanagar gas Ltd.”

The fire brigade brought the situation under control by 1 pm, and then handed over the entire charge to Mahanagar gas Ltd officials.