Chennai: Efforts to remove the last traces of ammonia from the private seafood processing unit at Kannigaipair in TIruvallur will continue for the fourth day on Tuesday, as residual ammonia continues to be trapped in the pipelines.Tiruvallur collector S Kavitha told TOI that the ammonia is allowed to naturally vaporise before its collected in storage tanks. “We need to ensure that no ammonia is left in the loop since the facility will be temporarily sealed,” she said.The process was started on Saturday with demarcating 300m surrounding the facility as a restricted zone and diverting traffic and public movement within 500m. While the liquid ammonia, a major part of the the leakage, was removed on Saturday by 5pm, the process of removing the residue trapped in the pipelines and valves continues. Once all the ammonia has been removed, it will be sent to the supplier via tankers in either Hosur or Tirunelveli.The exercise is being carried out safely by the district administration, with teams from the Fire and Rescue Services, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) and medical personnel on standby.The removal exercise comes more than two weeks after the June 21 ammonia leak at the seafood processing unit, allegedly caused by industrial lapses. The leak claimed 18 lives, while 14 of them remain under treatment and 51 people have since been discharged from hospitals.
