CHENNAI: After the leak in the ONGC pipeline in Kathiramangalam set off a protest that crossed 60 days, officials are now planning to hire an agency to spread awareness on safety for people living near oil installations.
Addressing a press conference, Ved Prakash Mahawar, director (onshore) ONGC, along with DD Mishra, director (human resources), Kulbir Singh, executive director (asset manager), and T Rajendran, deputy general manager, geology, and basin manager (Cauvery), said the agency would spread awareness about the safety mechanism.
Officials said that the ONGC would also conduct an audit of the 9.5-km leaked pipeline, which was only seven to eight years old. Dismissing concerns over the quality of pipeline, Mahawar said some pipelines were functioning well despite being 50 years old. “The leak could be due to stress on the pipe while extracting the oil,” he said.
Initially, officials dismissed the leak as a minor one. When prodded over the lack of safety mechanism and awareness among people in case of a fire, the officials were in the dark about it. “We conduct an in-house mock drill every month,” they said. But when queried whether such safety drills were being conducted in Kathiramangalam annually, the officials failed to offer a proper response.