Baghjan oil well gas emission: No change in ground situation

A CORRESPONDENT

DOOMDOOMA: The blow out of gas that took place in Oil India Limited (OIL)''s Baghjan BGR Oil Well No.5 under Doomdooma Police Station in Tinsukia district on Wednesday remained unchanged on Thursday although rescue operations were going on on a war footing to control the gas emission.

According to eye witness report, the whole area up to 1 km radius has been dampened with vapour of oil as experienced in case of fog coverage and the villagers are apprehensive about its outcome if fire breaks out there. The deafening sound that was produced due to gushing out of gas from the well in an uncontrolled manner on Wednesday was still there on Thursday and it was even difficult to talk up to a distance of 800 metres from the place of occurrence.

The panic that had gripped the entire Baghjan-Digulturrang area was very much there even on Thursday, as observed by a team of local scribes of Doomdooma Press Club that visited the spot to take stock of the situation. The families that had to be evacuated from the neighbourhood of the OIL's well and given shelter in a relief camp set up by the district administration, was provided food by OIL but other facilities like medical care to look after the inmates suffering from trauma of the incident and sickness was lacking, as alleged by a section of conscious citizens of the locality. The overall situation worsened on Thursday even as attempt had been made to douse the gas emission with a large number of fire tenders.

Besides an expert team of ONGC, Nazira whose help was sought on Wednesday, another expert team for such emergency operation from Dehradun was also reportedly requisitioned on Wednesday but their arrival could not be confirmed till filing of this report. From the district administration's side the Tinsukia Superintendent of Police kept strict vigil over the situation. 

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