Disaster averted after gas pipeline burst in Noida

A major accident was averted after a gas pipeline was damaged near the service lane along the plots from D-21 to D-39 in Sector 61, Noida, on Friday morning. The pipeline was damaged due to construction work going on to link Noida City Centre to Ghaziabad by Metro.

Lucky Kumar, a resident of D block, Sector 61, said, “At about 10 am, I heard a loud bang like that of a tyre bursting. I immediately came out of my house to see what had happened. I saw a lot of people running away from a particular spot where digging was going on. I could also smell gas in the air. I immediately realised that the sound was from the gas pipeline and called the emergency number written on the IGL [Indraprastha Gas Limited] warning board. It took about 30 minutes for the IGL team to arrive at the spot and about three hours to fix the pipeline.” 

Omkar Babu, an IGL engineer, told City Spidey that his team reached the spot immediately after receiving the resident's message. 

Meanwhile, it seems that the Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) is shying away from taking responsibility. When City Spidey contacted CS Mudgal, civil project engineer of NMRC, he said, “Please don’t make it a big issue. It’s the workers’ fault.” 

Residents of Sector 61 are now worried that an accident could happen any time. Although the pipes, which are under high pressure, have been carefully marked, one wonders how Metro officials happened to be so irresponsible about such a huge safety issue.

A view of the spot after the burst gas pipeline was fixed.