By IANS,
Bhiwandi (Maharashtra) : Military experts arrived in this town Friday to assist the civil administration probing a chlorine gas leak that left 59 people ill and forced the evacuation of 3,500 residents.
According to Sudesh Punyarthi, chief of Bhiwandi Disaster Management department, a discarded cylinder containing 900 kg of chlorine gas and belonging to the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation’s sewerage department, leaked after an explosion in a civic dumping ground.
The town of Bhiwandi is around 45 km northeast of Mumbai.
“While most of the chlorine gas is believed to have dissipated in the air, the army experts and our technical officials are trying to ascertain if there is any more left which could create problems,” Punyarthi told IANS.
At least nine women fell unconscious after they inhaled the fumes and were admitted to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital nearby.
Fifty people complained of nausea and difficulty in breathing and were treated in hospitals, the disaster management department said. All of them were later discharged.
As a precaution, the civic authorities evacuated around 3,500 people from slums around the dumping ground.
“They will be permitted to return to their homes only after the army and civic experts complete their investigations,” a civic official added.
Apart from the army, teams of the disaster management department, fire brigade and health department examined the site which was cordoned off by police.
There were no casualties in the incident. The remaining one million people in Bhiwandi were not affected, a police official said.