GAIL gas pipeline damaged during Metro work, traffic in Bengaluru's tech corridor hit

The breach occurred at around 4.30 AM when the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited was carrying out precautionary drilling in the area before beginning piling work for Metro phase II.
GAIL gas pipeline damaged during Metro works near Garudacharyapalya bus stop in Bengaluru on Monday. (Photo | Nagarajay Gadekal/EPS)
GAIL gas pipeline damaged during Metro works near Garudacharyapalya bus stop in Bengaluru on Monday. (Photo | Nagarajay Gadekal/EPS)

BENGALURU: The busy ITPL main road and surrounding areas witnessed a massive traffic jam on Monday morning as a gas pipeline belonging to GAIL India Limited, was breached during ongoing Namma Metro work at Garudacharpalya near Hoodi. The breach, according to officials, occurred at around 4.30 AM when the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) was carrying out precautionary drilling in the area before beginning piling work for phase II of Namma Metro. 

"Fire and Emergency Services have come out and repair work is going on. We have blocked the vehicles which are moving towards ITPL for the safety of the public," said a tweet by the KR Puram Traffic Police.

Alternative routes via Marathahalli and Kundalahalli gate were arranged by the police who cordoned off the area of the leak after it was called in by a person identified as Abhishek. A case has been registered by the Mahadevpura police to ascertain if the proper drilling permissions were obtained by the BMRCL. 

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According to a GAIL Gas official, the pipeline belonged to its parent company GAIL and the flow of gas was stopped as soon as the leak was reported. Ajay Seth, Managing Director of BMRCL said that the restoration of the pipeline would be completed by afternoon. "We take inputs from agencies about the location of water, power and other utilities on our Metro route and we carry out precautionary drilling up to a depth of 2.5 meters in order to be sure. This breach occurred during this exercise in the night. We will get a detailed update on the location of GAIL pipelines in the area," he said. 

In the meantime, traffic piled up at Devasandra, Outer Ring Road, ITPL Main road before the police cordoned off the area. The use of mobile phones has been restricted in an arc extending 500 meters from the breach, police officials said. 

Traffic flow on the blocked roads was restored around 10 am by the polic. The commuters, however,  complained of traffic jam. The police are working on normalising traffic at the spot of the incident. 

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