NEW DELHI: The Indian Army has joined the ongoing operation to control the fire at the Baghjan Oil Field in Tinsukia of Assam. The jawans on Monday completed the construction of a Composite Bridge at the blow out site of Well Number 5 in the oil field on 22 June 2020.
Defence Spokesperson Lt Col Harsh Wardhan Pande said, “Oil India Limited on 14 June through the Civil Administration had requisitioned assistance of Indian Army for construction of the bridge at the incident site.”
The bridge has provided the much-needed impetus to the ongoing disaster relief efforts. The construction of the bridge was extremely critical for the task of controlling the fire, as it now provides the only access to the experts to approach the well. The experts now plan to lay a heavy-duty pipeline over the bridge and create a water umbrella for dousing the fire.
The execution of this engineering feat was a challenging task. Lt Col Pande says, “233 metric tons of bridging stores had to be mobilised over 400 kilometres. 150 specially trained troops of Army undertook the task for construction under heavy rainfall and extremely risky and hazardous conditions in the vicinity of the raging fire with working temperatures exceeding 75 degrees Celsius.” The Army constructed the bridge within 24 hours.
A special team will continuously maintain the bridge and keep it afloat even in the harshest of conditions, added Pande. A massive fire erupted in a damaged oil field in Assam's Tinsukia district on June 9. The oil well has since been spewing gas as it had suffered damage after a blowout on May 27.
The fire has led to a major worry as Maguri-Motapung wetland is about a kilometer away and is also next to Dibru-Saikhowa National Park. The fire has put to risk species including tiger, Gangetic dolphin, feral horses, and around 400 bird species.