Seven workers at the Ankleshwar plant of Rallis India, located at the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation's chemical estate, suffered burn injuries when a fire broke out at the unit II of the plant during the wee hours of today.
The fire which broke out around 4 55 am was extinguished within an hour, company officials said.
"The seven workers who suffered burn injuries have been hospitalised. The condition of four of them is worrisome and they are in the intensive care unit," company executive vice-president B S Uberoi said.
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He said the cause of the fire is being investigated. "It seems to have been because of a leakage of an inflammable gas from one of the fractionating columns of a small unit manufacturing an intermediate chemical CMAC, used for the manufacture of Cypermethrin," he said. "As this plant is located at a distance of around 2.5 km from the other manufacturing units of Rallis India, no other units were affected," he added.
According to Uberoi, the damage caused by the accident is negligible. The insurance cover for fire damage to assets as well as for loss in profits are in place and are being expeditiously processed.
Saying that the company's annual sales of Cypermethrin is unlikely to be affected, he said alternative sources of the intermediate chemical CMAC are available in the market. For the year ended March 31, 2001, Cypermethrin accounted for an annual turnover of Rs 12 crore out of the company's total sales of Rs 1,270 crore.
Uberoi said the fire occurred despite all safety and environmental precautions being observed at the plant, which has been awarded a certificate of merit for 1997 and 1998, jointly by the Gujarat Safety Council and Gujarat Rajya Factory Inspectorate.
A senior management team headed by company CEO Rajeev Dubey has rushed to Surat and Ankleshwar to ensure providing full succour to the affected workers and to supervise the expeditious return to normalcy of the plant.