Already, industrial pollution has reached alarming proportions adversely affecting critical mass. The city was exposed to its worst-ever accident when HPCL Visakh Refinery vapour cloud explosion in September 1997, killing at least 60 persons. HPCL Visakh Refinery again hit the headlines for the wrong reasons in August 2013, when the seawater cooling tower collapsed leading to the death of 28 persons. The city was given a critically polluted tag by the Central Pollution Control Board in its Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index in 2009. “To contain the spate of accidents, regular inspection by the authorities is a must and in case of any lapse the licence for production should be revoked without yielding to any pressure,” Rebbapragda Ravi, an NGO activist, said.

Source: The Hindu May 07, 2020 18:21 UTC