An unfortunate accident at IFFCO’s Phulpur Ammonia Urea unit in Prayagraj Tuesday late evening claimed the lives of two of its officials when they tried to control the incident of gas leakage in a bid to save the lives of others.
Abhay Nandan, Deputy Manager (Offsites) and V P Singh, Assistant Manager (Urea) lost their lives while 16 others got hurt tackling the Ammonia leakage. The IFFCO management led by their MD Dr U S Awasthi have offered condolences and paid them tributes for their heroic act.
“Prima facie, the accident at the IFFCO Phulpur ammonia urea unit was caused by a mechanical failure. An official technical enquiry committee has been set up to find out the cause of the accident”, said IFFCO MD.
A press release by the co-op titan reads “The tie rods of an ammonia plunger pump suddenly broke and got detached leading to heavy ammonia leakage. Two of our employees lost their lives while 13 other employees and 3 contract labour have got affected while tackling the leakage”.
Six out of them have been shifted to a hospital in Prayagraj while the remaining ten are receiving treatment at IFFCO’s township hospital. While two of them have been discharged, the condition of the other 14 is said to be stable.
Giving details of the accident IFFCO’s release said “Our Emergency Response Group (ERG), Fire & Safety team and plant operating staff bravely stood their ground against the emergency situation and restricted the leakage to small areas within the plant and normalised it in a considerably short time given the amount of leak. Their hard work ensured that the leakage could not spread more and affect more personnel than it has already affected, reads the press release.”
The IFFCO management has taken a serious account of this accident in response to which a technical enquiry committee, headed by an Executive Director (ED) rank officer, has been set up to find out the cause of the incident, the release stated.