Four workers killed, 2 serious after nitrogen gas leak at Maharashtra pharma company

At least four workers were killed and two others were in serious condition after a gas leak at a pharmaceutical company in Maharashtra's Palghar district. The incident took place at Medley Pharma, which is located in the industrial area of Tarapur-Boisar, in the afternoon on Thursday (Aug 21). The location is about 130 kilometres from Mumbai.

According to the Chief of Palghar district disaster management cell, Vivekanand Kadam, a nitrogen gas in one of the units of the company experienced a leak between 2:30 pm and 3 pm. Following the leak, six workers were affected and were rushed to the hospital. Four of them died a few hours later.

“Six workers were rushed to the hospital, where four of them died around 6:15 pm,” he said.

Two others were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at a local hospital and are currently undergoing treatment, he added. They are in serious condition as of now.

According to NDTV, the workers who died were identified as Kalpesh Raut, Bangali Thakur, Dheeraj Prajapati and Kamlesh Yadav. The two receiving treatment are Rohan Shinde and Nilesh Hadal.

The incident comes less than a month after a similar incident was reported at a daily plant in Mumbai’s Goregaon. On July 24, an ammonia gas leak happened at the Mahananda Dairy plant in Goregaon (East). No casualties were reported in the incident.

According to officials, the leakage was reported from a 3,000 kg tank at the 2,000-square-foot cold storage on the ground floor, which was part of the refrigerator unit.

In response to the incident, the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) and the HAZMAT unit, a specialised group of emergency responders trained to handle incidents involving dangerous substances, were deployed. The cause behind the leak was identified as a malfunctioning valve in the tank.

In a similar incident last year in December, three people lost their lives after a gas leak at a fertiliser company in Maharashtra’s Sangli district.