making mumbai a_safer_city_the_mumbai_999_report

MAKING MUMBAI A SAFER CITY

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Mar ‘ 2013 The Planning and Design Lab Rev 02

The Mumbai Megaproject Second Edition

Making Mumbai A Safer City

An Initiative of the Planning & Design Lab Revision 02

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th Mar ‘ 2013

The Nataraja Foundation


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Table Of Contents

1. Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 3

2. Quantification of the Industrial Disaster threat facing Mumbai … Snapshot ............................. 4

3. Mindless Expansions…In Contravention of all Existing Laws & Regulations .......................... 5

4. Terrorist Strike in Mahul … Indian Nuclear Command goes to Defcon 1 ............................. 6

5. Military Operation To Disperse Giant Ammonia Cloud Over Mahim .................................... 7

5. What Do Indian Regulations and Laws Say … About Plant Location ? ..................................... 8

5.1 Possible Solutions : ................................................................................................................ 9

6. Technical Basis For Mahul Disaster Modeling ........................................................................... 9

6.1 Historical Comparison with Major Global Disasters in each category .................................... 9

6.1.1 Ammonium Nitrate Disasters ........................................................................................ 10

6.1.2 Anhydrous Ammonia Disasters ..................................................................................... 12

6.1.3 LPG Disasters ............................................................................................................... 15

6.1.4 Refinery Disasters .......................................................................................................... 17

6.2 Wind Direction data and Topography in Mumbai ................................................................ 18

6.3 Technical View … based on 20 years of experience in the Industry ................................... 19

7. The Stark Choice Facing Mumbai Municipality … Learning From the City of Ranchi ........... 19

......................................................................................................................................................... 19

8. Making Mumbai A Safer City … Conclusions & Recommendations ....................................... 20

9. Annexure I … Recent Terror Threat to BPCL / HPCL … 7th

September ‘ 2012 ....................... 23

10. Annexure II … Recent Aircraft Accident Averted … 25th August ‘ 2012 ............................. 24


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About the Author

Ashish Puntambekar is a Mumbai based , Corporate Planner and Infrastructure Project Designer. He has 20 years of experience in designing some of India’s largest infrastructure projects, the most notable and recent of which is the Indian Education Megaproject. The Education Megaproject is a plan to provide high quality education , totally free of cost to 126 Million children, 80 % of who live in rural areas and come from the poorest families. http://www.nataraja.org.in/masseducationproject.htm

As a designer , Ashish believes in Gandhiji’s vision of “ Sarvodaya “( i.e the rise of all ) and his project designs therefore focus on including the excluded among the masses . All his projects also have huge environmental dividends in that they are designed for sustainability while also deploying environmentally friendly building materials on a massive scale. Each project’s financial design also frees up large capital resources for afforestation schemes and for wildlife preservation. The Mumbai Megaproject for instance provides US $ 300 Million for Mangroves and another US $ 1.5 Billion for the planting of dense forests in Maharashtra. Employment generation is also high on the design agenda. This is witnessed by the fact that the above mentioned two projects , alone will add 10 Million new jobs in India. Besides designing large infrastructure and clean energy projects, the designer is also keenly interested in the geopolitics of petroleum ( several published articles ) and has expert level knowledge in the energy business and especially the price of crude oil which he has traded as a derivative trader on all the worlds major exchanges and OTC markets for over 5 years. He currently works as a project designer and also runs a private foundation, named the Nataraja Foundation, with a mandate to innovate on an unprecedented level in the areas of Social Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Clean Energy. Ashish holds an MBA in International business and a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering.


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1. Executive Summary

Mumbai today is certainly amongst one of the most dangerous cities globally from an industrial disaster perspective.

The threat of large scale industrial disaster in Mumbai comes mainly from chemical plants and refineries which are in extreme violation of plant location norms as specified in the Indian Environmental Protection Act. The Act specifies that in the case of large Industries, a distance of 25 Kilometers needs to be maintained and industry shall be sited at least 25 km from the projected growth boundary of the nearest settlement of 3 lakh or more people.

In Mumbai however, major plant capacity expansions have been permitted over the last two decades despite the fact that there are literally lakhs of people living within a few hundred meters of these very large and dangerous chemical complexes. In some cases, heavy traffic plies on roads just 25 meters from huge tanks with awesome destructive potential. This is especially true in the suburbs of ****** and ****** where thousands of people live very close to large and very old refineries and chemical plants handling lethal chemicals.

Besides the above, the following amounts of an unheard of situation when we compare Mumbai with any other global city :

There is Cyanide in the Mithi river : Chemical analysis by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has revealed Cyanide in the Mithi river. This cyanide in low concentrations has also been carried over to the Mahim Bay and to the Bandra – Worli offshore area. Apart from this there are extremely poisonous salts of mercury, lead , chromium, arsenic etc in the Mithi river and Mahim bay.

Poisonous Gas releases : In the Thane – Belapur industrial belt, every night certain industries release poisonous gases into the atmosphere. Many of these chemicals are also carcinogenic and some of them could even cause genetic defects and mutations in future generations. These industries also dump huge quantities of poisons, untreated into nallas which pass through densely populated areas and eco – sensitive mangroves as effluent treatment plants are non-functional.

The Mumbai Megaproject Second Edition

Making Mumbai A Safer City


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The Mumbai Megaproject has submitted a confidential report to the Government of Maharashtra. The report titled “ Making Mumbai A Safer City “ requests the Government of Maharashtra to act immediately to safeguard the lives and property of the city’s citizens. This will prevent large scale industrial accidents and prevent biological and genetic damage in future generations.

As of now only excerpts from this report are being shared with the public as this is a serious document requiring immediate action by the Government.

Ashish Puntambekar Project Designer The Planning and Design Lab

Projects

The Mumbai Megaproject & The Indian Education Megaproject ... High quality Education to 126 Million Children Totally Free of cost Contact Details : [email protected] [email protected]


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NOTE

This document is protected by Indian Copyright Law. Please specifically quote your source while using the text / material presented herein, to avoid legal action.

Pictures used within this document have been taken from the internet. They are therefore representative and not necessarily from a location in Mumbai or Maharashtra. The pictures used are generic and we have provided a link on the website ( to be updated from time to time ) where we have identified the source of the pictures. In case of any oversight on our part, please let us know and we will immediately rectify the matter.