Foreign experts roped in to control oil well fire: Assam CM

Assam Chief Minster Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday said the government is taking help of experts from Singapore, Australia, America and Canada to control the fire in a gas well in Tinsukia district.

The well number five at Baghjan has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 19 days and it caught fire on Tuesday afternoon, killing two of Oil India Ltd's firefighters at the site.

Though the blaze in the periphery of the well has been extinguished, the company has declared an area up to 1.5 km of radius as "red zone" to avoid any untoward incident.

The blaze at the well is so massive that it can be seen from a distance of more than 30 kms with thick black smoke going up several metres endangering the local biodiversity in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park following the blowout on May 27.

Sonowal and Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan visited the site during the day and met leaders of different student organisations at Tinsukia.

The CM informed them that the government is taking help of experts from Singapore, Australia, America and Canada to douse the fire and an expert committee is also being formed to study the environmental impact and suggest remedial steps.

Talking about the environmental impact as well as the reported tremor felt around the fire site, Sonowal said the government is all set to constitute a committee with experts from IIT Guwahati, Regional Research Centre in Jorhat and Geological Survey of India on the issue.

After receiving the feedback from the expert committee, the government will take appropriate time-bound steps, he said.

The CM expressed his gratitude to the student leaders for extending all support and cooperation to the government at this critical juncture.

Union Minister Pradhan said his ministry is taking all possible measures to control the situation.

He said the oil industry is greatly indebted to the people of Assam for the support they extend to the government and industry in this crisis situation.

Representatives of All Moran Students Union, All Asom Mottock Yuba Chatra Sanmilan, All Assam Chutia Students Union, All Adivasi Students Association, Gorkha Students Union, All Assam Students Union, AJYCP and others were present during the meeting.

Later talking to reporters, Sonowal said that the government will take all steps for all-round development of Baghjan and pragmatic steps will be taken to avert any such incident in the future.