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A team of senior officials from Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) and Dakshina Kannada district administration visited the blast site near Mangalore on Friday where three people, including a Korean, were killed and three others injured on Thursday evening.
One of the deceased has been identified as a mining expert from South Korea, while the other two are Indians.
It was reported that the deceased were trying to defuse misfired detonators near the project site in Mangalore.
Mr Rajen Pillai, Chief Executive Officer of ISPRL, and Mr Prabhulinga Kavalakatti, the Assistant Commissioner of Mangalore, visited the blast spot.
High-level police officials and a dog squad of the police department also inspected the project site.
Pieces of uniforms of labourers and portions of helmets wore by the deceased were strewn around when this reporter visited the blast site on Friday. Blood stains were visible on the boulders and on the ground.
The project work was stopped on Friday.
A board displayed at the site said that the project site witnessed 22,01,360 man hours and an equal number of safe man hours till April 30, 2011.
Strategic crude oil reserve is to provide for emergency response mechanism against short-term supply disruptions under various scenarios. The underground rock caverns in the facility will store 14-day supply of crude oil for the country in case of supply disruptions.
The Cabinet in its January 7, 2005, meeting had approved building of strategic crude oil reserve of 5 million tonnes at three locations — Mangalore (1.5 MT), Visakhapatnam (1 MMT) and Padur in Udupi district (2.5 MT).
The Ministry of Environment and Forests gave environmental clearance for the project on March 11, 2008.
The foundation stone for the Mangalore project was laid in May 2009. The project is coming up on 100 acres at Bajpe in Mangalore.
A joint venture of South Korea Engineering and Construction and Karam Chand Thapar had bagged the Mangalore cavern works for Rs 403 crore. Nig & Rich Infratech Pvt Ltd, Mangalore, is the sub-contractor to the joint venture for the execution of the cavern works.
Addressing the members of the Institution of Engineers here recently, Mr Mohandas Kamath, Director (Projects), Nig & Rich Infratech Pvt Ltd, had said that 35 per cent of the underground cavern work has been completed at the project site.
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