At least one worker was killed and four others were injured following an explosion at a chemical factory in the Tarapur Chemical Zone in Palghar on Monday evening. The sound of the high-intensity blast reverberated as far as 10 kilometres from the site, police said.
A worker, identified as Sandeep Kushwah, died in the blast while the four injured, Mohammad Mohsin Altaf, 30, Dilip Gupta, 28, Umesh Kushwah, 22, and Pramod Kumar Mishra, 35, have been admitted to Tunga Hospital. At the time of incident, around 16 people were working in the factory, of whom 11 escaped unhurt, said a police officer.
According to police, an explosion occurred at Nandolia Organic Chemicals Pvt Ltd in Tarapur at around 7.30pm on Monday. At the time of incident, the manufacture of dichlorobenzamide azole was underway. During the dichloro distillation process, the amount of water in the material was in excess of mandatory levels, resulting in excess pressure in the reactor, which triggered the blast, said a police officer.
