Loutolim shipyard accident death toll climbs to three

Margao: A third worker succumbed on Saturday to injuries sustained in the accident at the Vijai Marine Services shipyard in Rassaim, Loutolim, on Friday evening. With this, the death toll has risen to three, while four others remain under treatment at the Goa Medical College, Bambolim.Santosh Kumar, 30, a native of Chhattisgarh, died while undergoing treatment at the hospital on Saturday. He was among those critically injured in the incident. The two workers who died in the initial blast on Friday were identified as Ser Ali, 21, a native of West Bengal, and Vinod Deewan, a native of Chhattisgarh.The accident occurred on Friday evening at the Vijai Marine Services shipyard in Rassaim, Loutolim, when workers were engaged in hot work activities, including electric arc welding and gas cutting, inside the fore castle compartment of an under-construction 80-metre landing craft vessel.Eyewitnesses reported seeing a red ball of fire accompanied by a loud noise rising from the compartment.Factories and boilers chief inspector Anant Pangam described the incident as a “flash fire”. “It was not a blast or explosion,” he said, adding that it was too early to comment on the cause of the accident .The inspectorate of factories and boilers on Saturday issued an order imposing immediate operational restrictions on the facility.

All activities related to landing craft vessel have been prohibited until further orders. In addition, all confined-space work across the entire factory premises has been suspended.Police personnel have been deployed outside the yard to ensure compliance with the shutdown orders.The firm, Vijai Marine Services Pvt Ltd, has been directed to conduct a “root cause analysis” of the fatal accident through a recognised occupational safety and health auditor to determine the exact cause and prevent any recurrence of a dangerous nature.

The company has also been instructed to review hazard identification and risk analysis for all operations and to prepare standard operating procedures for all factory activities.

All action-taken reports must be submitted within seven days of receiving the order.The Maina-Curtorim police have arrested Raju Bora, 36, a native of Assam employed as a security officer at the shipyard, on charges of negligence that allegedly contributed to the deaths.Various departments, including inspectorate of factories and boilers, the Goa state pollution control board, and the labour department, are engaged in a a fact-finding exercise. Labour department is examining details for compensation claims under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, while the Goa state pollution control board is assessing the environmental and pollution-related implications of the incident.