Navy commander dies, 2 hospitalized after deadly gas leakage on warship at Mazgaon dockyard

Mumbai: The Indian Navy was hit by yet another mishap today with leakage of a deadly gas on an under-construction warship claiming the life of a Commander and hospitalisation of two others, nine days after a similar accident led to resignation of Navy Chief Admiral D K Joshi.42-year-old Commander Kuntal Wadhwa died before reaching hospital after inhaling carbon dioxide that leaked from a malfunctioning unit just little after noon when the Kolkata Class 'Yard-701' warship was undergoing tests in the Mazagaon Dock Limited (MDL), officials said.Two employees of the defence ministry shipyard also were affected by the gas leakage and were taken to hospital. An MDL official said they have been discharged.The warship, which was to be named INS Kolkata, is to be commissioned on March 27 and officials said there will be no delay in that.The fresh mishap, which came just nine days after fire and smoke in submarine INS Sindhuratna claimed lives of two officers, triggered demands for Defence Minister A K Antony's resignation.Admiral Joshi had quit as Navy Chief after the Sindhuratna incident, which was the 10th in a series of such mishaps, taking "moral responsibility". Vice Admiral Robin Dhowan is currently the Acting Navy Chief.Preliminary inquiries into today's mishap suggested that the valve of firefighting equipment and Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Warfare capabilities of the warship burst when a specialist team was making checks, sources told PTI in Delhi.Cdr Wadhwa, who was the Commander (Engineer) of the largest destroyer of the Navy, inhaled large amounts of the gas as he was not wearing a mask, they said.Navy and the shipyard have set up separate boards of inquiry into the incident."Wadhva, 42, was declared dead before admission in St George Hospital at 1317 hours. He was a resident of Colaba and his relatives are coming from Thane," Additional CP Krishna Prakash."Yard-701, being built by Mazagaon Docks Limited, while undergoing machinery trials in Mumbai Port Trust had a malfunction in its carbon dioxide unit, leading to gas leakage," an MDL spokesperson said.Prakash said that at about 1245 hours during fire fighting testing, the CO2 bottle neck opened accidentally, releasing the gas.BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar accused the Congress- led UPA government of indulging in scams and jeopardising the country's defence preparedness by not focusing on the equipment needs of the armed forces and stalling the procurement process."This is the 11th serious accident in past 11 months. This is the result of complete neglect of the Navy by the Congress-led UPA government. Defence Minister Antony must take the responsibility and resign forthwith," he said.His party colleague Ravishankar Prasad said the defence of the country has been "weakened and compromised".The Defence Minister has been in touch with the Navy and MDL officials after the incident took place and asked them to monitor the situation closely, Ministry officials said.Meanwhile, in a late evening release, the Navy said, "An incident of carbon dioxide (CO2) leakage was reported from Yard 12701 (Kolkata Class Ship) this afternoon whilst she was undergoing acceptance trials under Mazagon Dock Limited.""As part of delivery trials by MDL, the carbon dioxide (CO2) fire fighting system was being evaluated and accordingly CO2 was to be released in one of the machinery compartments. During the trials, one of the system valves on the CO2 bottles malfunctioned leading to leakage of CO2 in the compartment," it said.The Navy said Wadhwa inhaled the CO2 gas and was critically injured."A Board of Inquiry has been ordered by the Indian Navy to investigate the causes leading to the accident. Representatives from MDL will also be associated with the inquiry. The Department of Defence Production has also asked for a detailed report from MDL," it said.

Navy commander dies, 2 hospitalized after deadly gas leakage on warship at Mazgaon dockyard

Mumbai: The Indian Navy was hit by yet another mishap today with leakage of a deadly gas on an under-construction warship claiming the life of a Commander and hospitalisation of two others, nine days after

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