Blast hits IOC's Koyli refinery

20 feared injured; CISF jawans manhandle mediamen

At least 20 workers are feared injured when a major fire broke out at the Koyli refiney of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). This is the largest refinery and the first hydrocracking unit in the country.

The fire started after a huge blast in on of he boilers at around 3.38 am on Friday. The Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU) suffered major damage and the unit had to be shut. The fire had reduced crude throughput by 20 per cent sources said.

B N Bankapur, executive director of Gujarat Refinery, which runs he refinery said: "Except the FCCU, rest of the units in are operational. It is difficult to comment when we would be able to restart the unit as it is still hot inside and difficult for our technical team to make entry and assess the damage."

The FCCU, with an annual capacity of 1.5 MMTPA, had been shut for usual maintenance and repairing.

On Friday afternoon when the media persons reached the refinery site, they were not allowed to enter the refinery premises. Some of them were also manhandled by the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) jawans and officers posted at the entry points.

A lensman was beaten up and M S Parghia, a sub-inspector with CISF, posted in one of the refinery gates also tried to snatch his camera and threatened to destroy it, though the lensman had not breached the prohibited zones.

The matter was sorted out only after senior IOC officials intervened and senior CISF officers rushed to the spot and took charge of the situation.

Another photographer from an international news agency was also manhandled by CISF jawans and the matter was brought to the notice of IOC officials.

The refinery was commissioned in 1965. Its facilities include five atmospheric crude distillation units. The present capacity of the Gujarat Refinery is 13.70 MMTPA. The FCCU was added to the refinery in 1981 to increase production of middle distillates, such as diesel and liquid petroleum gas (LPG).

The blast at the reactor could be heard for about 10 km from the site, the locals said. According to IOC officials, no death has been reported so far.

Meanwhile, complaints of missing workers flooded Gujarat Refinery office late on Friday as villagers near the factory cam looking for their near and dears.

The family members have registered complaints about the missing persons with the local police station. Nobody from the labour contractor company called TMK could be contacted yet.