HYDERABAD: Two labourers working on a gas pipeline close to Hyderabad received severe burn injuries on Saturday, when fire broke out in the supply line.

The injured men were working to repair a 16-inch-diametre Sui Southern Gas Company pipeline near village Mohammad Khan Bagirani in Deh Shah Bukhari close to a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) production plant (Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited JJVL)

Soorat Ali, aged, 18 and  Habibullah, 20, had been hired by a SSGC contractor. They were shifted to the burns ward of Liaquat University Hospital’s city branch with 18 to 22 per cent burn wounds.

Managing Director SSGC Azeem Iqbal told Dawn.com that the line was being repaired when the teeth of excavator’s shovel hit line, causing it to explode.

The line supplies gas to Hyderabad and other adjoining interior districts.

“The line was being repaired and fire has been controlled, but the excavator was burnt,” SSGC officials said.

JJVL plant manager Mashood Abbasi confirmed that the LPG plant is located one kilometer away from site of the accident. JJVL receives 200MCF of natural gas daily from Badin and they use 10MCF for producing 370 or so metric tons of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and the remaining quantity was sent to the system for domestic and commercial consumption.

According to MD Iqbal it is Indus left bank transmission line and excavation was under way to carry out cathodic protection work to avoid corrosion in pipeline.

“When the excavator started working on soil it shovel’s teeth hit the pipeline and it got damaged”, he said. He further said that there is no suspension in gas supplies.

“We have a massive gas distribution system so we have diverted the gas through another system to keep it going”, Iqbal explained.