Foul smell near ONGC plant creates panic; officials deny leakage

Panic spread among residents living near the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) plant at Nagaon village, Uran, after a foul smell was reported on Wednesday. Amid suspicion of a gas leak, ONGC authorities clarified that there was no leakage in the plant and the smell was of hydrocarbon and had spread owing to incessant rain.

Sonalee Dutta, public relations officer of ONGC, said, “The smell had spread because of heavy rain and not because of any leakage. Senior officials were present at the plant on Wednesday. We later interacted with the local villagers and administration to dispel the panic caused by the hydrocarbon smell in the vicinity.”

Jagdish Kulkarni, senior inspector of Uran police station, said, “Initially, we were informed that there was a gas leakage as part of the ongoing repairs at the plant. ONGC officials then confirmed that there was no leakage.” He further said that some of the residents had panicked after they found the smell in the air. “But no one evacuated their house because of this,” Kulkarni said.

Four people, including a senior official of ONGC, had died after a massive fire had broken broke out following a gas leakage at the plant on September 3. Ever since the incident, the ONGC had started some major repairing work at the plant.