Gandhinagar, Oct 15 (IANS) Four workers were killed in an explosion during pipe-fitting work near a boiler vessel at a chemical factory in Chhatral GIDC Phase-4 in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district, officials said on Thursday.
The blast occurred at Kovika Dyes & Intermediates, a manufacturer and exporter of dyes operating in the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) industrial estate, a local police official told IANS.
According to preliminary findings, a pipe may have burst due to pressure while workers were carrying out pipe-fitting work near a boiler vessel, triggering the explosion. The exact cause of the incident is yet to be established.
The deceased were identified as Vinodkumar Nandlal Singh (42), Teda Dehari (18) and Sikandar Lakhan Dehari (40), all residents of Jharkhand, and Laxman Meena, a resident of Udaipur in Rajasthan.
A team from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) reached the site to examine the circumstances surrounding the explosion and collect evidence.
Police said the investigation would seek to establish the cause of the blast and determine whether any safety lapses were involved.
District Superintendent of Police (SP) Ravi Teja Vasamsetty said forensic experts would collect samples and conduct tests to ascertain whether inflammable substances were involved in the incident or whether negligence had contributed to the deaths.
“A team from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) will also visit the factory to investigate the incident,” officials said.
The forensic examination is expected to help investigators establish the sequence of events leading to the explosion and assess the possible factors responsible for it.
However, the preliminary suspicion that a pipe burst under pressure has not yet been confirmed by the investigation.
Meanwhile, post-mortem examinations of the four deceased workers are underway, and police are in the process of registering an accidental death case.
The investigation is continuing, with forensic experts and other authorities expected to examine the site and relevant evidence to determine the circumstances in which the workers died.
–IANS
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