KOCHI: Panic gripped residents of Ambalamugal region, where the BPCL-Kochi’s refinery is located, after a unit under the process of commissioning ‘tripped’. The presence of fire engines in the area triggered fear among the locals. An officer said during the commissioning of ‘Delayed Coker Unit’, the unit’s operations were shut down to attend to certain maintenance activities.
As a precaution, the work in the nearby site was stopped, the officer said. A ‘delayed coker’ is one whose process consists of heating a residual oil feed to its thermal cracking temperature in a furnace with multiple parallel passes.
Ravi T K, secretary, Kuzhikad Residents Association, said the people in the locality felt dizziness from morning. “It is learnt the company relocated 10,000 workers from the site after the incident,” he said. The people will take out a ‘torch-light march’ from Kuzhikad to the BPCL plant at Ambalamugal on Saturday, he said.