Guwahati: At least three persons including a pregnant woman were killed and nine others sustained serious burn injuries when a gas carrying pipeline belonging to Assam Gas Company Limited (AGCL) exploded near Singarijan Tea Estate in Moran in eastern Assam at around 3-30am on Monday.
The pregnant woman, Jyoti Sabar, died on the spot while two others, Bhasan Sharma and Parash Sarma died due to serious burn injuries in Assam Medical College Hospital (AMCH) in Dibrugarh.
The injured were rushed to the AMCH.
At least eight dwelling houses near the pipeline were razed to the ground while the raging inferno also caused damage to standing crops and tea estates in the vicinity of the AGCL pipeline that was carrying natural gas from Oil India Limited’s group gathering station (GGS) at Moran to Duliajan.
Many livestock were also charred to death by the fire.
Extensive damages were caused before fire engines of Oil India Limited and Assam State Fire Service could put out the fire.
Sivasagar Superintendent of Police, Bijoy Kuli said initial report ruled out any sabotage
behind the gas pipeline blast and fire incident.
He said condition of most of injured was stated to be serious and that the death toll may go up.
“People were asleep when the fire broke out all of a sudden at around 3.30 am and families residing near the accident site got hardly any time to escape,” he said adding that the investigation was on.
An AGCL official said that there was a crater near the spot where the pipeline exploded and caught fire. It was a natural gas carrying pipeline linking Moran and Duliajan.
An oil industry source informed that the AGCL supplies gas to various tea estates in the area through this pipeline that carries natural gas at low pressure ( 8-10 kg).
An eyewitness said that there was a deafening sound of an explosion of the pipeline right before the fire broke out and caused such damage.
