Bhilai (Chhattisgarh): Six employees, including a senior official, fell ill after inhaling some toxic gas leaked in the Bhilai plant of the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) in Durg district of Chhattisgarh early on Friday, officials said.
The gas leak, which occurred inside the plant's blast furnace 8 at around 2 am, has now been controlled.
"One loco operator and two shunting staff, who were inside the locomotive that was positioned below the U seal, got affected by the release of gas," a statement from the plant said.
The affected trio was immediately taken to the main medical post inside the plant. Two persons, among those who shifted the affected staff, also suffered minor exposure to the gas, the statement said.
All the five persons were then admitted to the Jawahar Lal Nehru (JLN) Hospital & Research Centre Bhilai, it added.
Later, an official of the Energy Management Department, who was engaged with his team to attend to the gas leakage, was also admitted to that hospital after he complained of headache, it said, adding that all the affected persons are out of danger now.
The affected employees were identified as Abhishek Anand, K Nagraj, Balkrishna, Santosh Kumar and Kalidas, all belonging to RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) and Deputy General Manager of the plant Rajesh Kumar, the statement said.
The leakage of gas was later stopped and the situation was brought under control, the release said.
Pertinently, this is not the first instance of a gas leak at the Bhilai Steel Plant. Earlier in 2014, six workers died and 30 others were injured after a gas leak inside blast furnace 2 of the plant.
