LG Polymers staff ran away at time of leak: Panel report

The maintenance staff at LG Polymers plant in Visakhapatnam ran away for their safety when the styrene gas leaked from its storage tank on May 7 while people in the surrounding villages were not even alerted, a probe committee has found.

The panel on Monday submitted its report dated May 28 to the National Green Tribunal that had constituted it.

The leak left 12 people dead and caused hospitalisation of nearly 500 people.

The committee, which included retired high court judge justice B Seshaseyana Reddy, conducted the inquiry at the plant on May 11, 12 and 14.

The plant’s director (operation) and production manager G Raju tried to explain that he and others tried to add para-tertiary butyl catechol to reduce the intensity of the leakage.

But two other employees of the company —M Achyut, shiftin-charge and P Balaji, manager — who were on the duty when the accident took place, told the panel that the moment they saw dense vapours coming from the tank, they ran away.

“The mishap at LG Polymers plant was only due to human failure and negligence of the persons in charge of the plant and maintenance personnel of the storage tank. The management did not take proper care of the affected storage tank and it resulted in the leakage of Styrene due to auto-polymerisation,” the committee said in its report, a copy of which HT has seen.

LG Polymers officials were not immediately available for a comment