An ex-gratia of Rs.20 lakhs to the wounded employees in the fire accident in the HPCL Refinery at Visakhapatnam is announced by the CMD of HPCL at Visakhapatnam.   He also assured that the safety measures will be reviewed by the international experts.  

4000 employees protested today in the morning sitting in front of the refinery main gate demanding upgradation of the safety measures.  The death toll reached to 9 in the fire broke in HPCL Refinery on Friday in one of the cooling towers in HPCL Refinery at Malkapuram in Visakhapatnam.  About 40 wounded employees are getting treatment in the Care Hospital at Visakhapatnam while one employee Venkata Rao was transported to Mumbai by plane for better treatment.  

CMD Ray Chowdhery said that the incident of this gravity has never happened in the refineries so far.  He also expressed his concern on its effect on the production.

(AW-SriJa)