Navi Mumbai: The search operation at the Patalganga river stretch continued for the second day to retrieve the missing 1,000-odd of the 2,000-plus LPG cylinders swept away from an HP Gas bottling plant in Rasayani MIDC, Raigad, on an inundated channel passing through the unit on Wednesday. The river passes through Khalapur, Panvel and Pen talukas before converging into the sea.Around 1,000 cylinders were retrieved from the river stretch by the Rasayani police and six volunteers from the NGO Help Foundation.Raigad collector Kishan Jawale’s letter, while appealing to locals to return the cylinders if found, has cited a figure of 3,000 cylinders; HP Gas clarified it was 2,000. A number of cylinders were swept away under the Kharpada bridge on the Mumbai-Goa Highway to the sea. Some of the cylinders were also seen floating into the sea off Karanja, Uran, around 16 km away. The possibility of locals having taken away a number of cylinders could not be ruled out, said officials.A local gas leak expert and volunteer, Dhananjay Geedh, said, “A suspected cloudburst resulted in a flash flood within 10-15 minutes. The company premises were under 7 feet of water while floating cylinders moved through the channel and truck yard gate towards the river.”Pen sub-divisional officer Pravin Pawar said, “Not a single cylinder was retrieved under our jurisdiction.”“Locals have handed over more than 100 cylinders,” said Rasayani police inspector Abhijit Bhujbal.Some of the cylinders were noticed on the flooded farmlands alongside the riverbank. The retrieved cylinders were brought back to the facility using transport vehicles. Officials did not rule out the possibility of the missing filled cylinders being used by those who found them.
