Methane leak in Durgapur creates panic
The Statesman | 5 September 2025The panicked residents sent an SOS call to the West Bengal Fire Services at midnight and a team of eight officials arrived shortly. When they failed to detect the underground leakage source, the WBFS team summoned the fuel gas company’s pipeline experts. The experts, after extensive labour for 14 hours, finally could fix the problem at 2 p.m. today.
The gas pilfered through the failed pipe junctions at Rahul Sankrittyayan Bithi and Alauddin Khan Bithi connector road stretch of City Centre. Panicked residents like Joy Dutta, Rina Roy Bhowmik, Sandhya Kuila expressed concern with the gradually increasing intensity of the gas in air. Dutta first called up the fire brigade. He said: “We first had complained to the pipeline agency about the bad odour persisting in the air on Tuesday, but they paid no heed to this. When the intensity further intensified, we were helpless and ran to the office but again they pleaded helpless saying that it’s an issue to be addressed by the superiors.”
Uday Singh, in-charge of the pipeline said: “We had no authority to turn off the valve. Our responsibility was for pipeline laying only.” Around 1 a.m, a team headed by engineer Deep Narayan Paul, in-charge, IOCAGL took the charge from the WBFS officials. Paul said today: “We have isolated the leakage spot and the connector pit was sealed temporarily this afternoon.”
The Indian Oil – Adani Gas, a JV company recently charged the supply of piped natural gas (PNG) to some domestic quarters of Durgapur, which is principally composed of Methane. The gas is transported through a recently-laid network of pipelines from the source to the consumer’s premises for cooking. The city pipeline is connected with the national gas grid at Panagarh junction – about 18 km from here.
