PUDUKKOTTAI: A faulty valve of the compressor of a cooling unit at the district's lone Aavin dairy plant caused excess ammonia gas leakage around afternoon on Thursday, triggering panic among workers. The leakage was contained after an hours-long operation by fire and rescue services personnel and a team of engineers from Madurai, following which operations resumed at the plant in the evening.
On the incident at the plant in the town where about 65,000 litres of milk is processed every day and sent to various districts, a senior fire and rescue services official in the district said, "We received a call (from the plant) by 12.30 pm. When we checked we learned that ammonia gas in the compressor of the cooling unit is flushed out once a week as part of maintenance.
There would be a certain amount of leakage usually but on Thursday it was in excess.” A team led by District Fire Officer (DFO) E Banupriya entered the plant and battled eye irritation and suffocation before containing the gas leakage after around two hours.
Later, a team of engineers from Aavin’s Madurai plant fixed the issue completely. The issue at the plant caused no harm to the general public, sources said. Aavin General Manager (Pudukkottai) Thangamani told TNIE, "The gas leakage occurred due to technical issues. The moment it was detected we instructed all the workers to evacuate. The issue was resolved with help from fire and rescue services personnel and experts from Madurai. The unit resumed operations from the evening."