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The visibility has been restored to normal on the Ahmedabad-Vadodara Highway in Gujarat's Kheda district, said an official.
This follows the incident when a tanker filled with hazardous acid fell into a deep pit off the highway, leading to reduced visibility in the area of 12 kilometres. The incident occurred on Tuesday evening. Speaking to the media on Tuesday night, Kheda Collector Amit Prakash Yadav informed that there was an Olium chemical compound in the tanker. "Today, late evening, a tanker carrying highly hazardous gas overturned at the entry point of Nadiad on the Ahmedabad Vadodara Expressway. Due to the inflammable acid and formation of its vapour cloud, visibility was reduced considerably in the area of 12 kilometres. As a precaution to avoid any loss of life or any accident in vehicle movement on the expressway, we stopped vehicle movement. With the help of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Vadodara Municipal Corporation and various private companies, this execution has been completed. Now the visibility is normal... This acid is Olium, H2S2O7, this is one of the hazardous acids," Yadav said. This incident also led to the evacuation of people from surrounding villages as a precaution. According to officials, a tanker filled with chemicals was travelling towards Ahmedabad, when it took a wrong turn, which led to the accident of the tanker falling in around feet deep pit. However, no injuries have been reported in the incident, officials confirmed. Earlier on Tuesday, district police officials, collector and top officials reached the spot to assess the situation. A lot of smoke was generated from the incident, which led to the closure of the highway for a brief period. Along with the Nandiad fire brigade, Ahmedabad and Vadodara fire-fighting teams were also called on to help with diluting the smoke and pouring soil on it. A total of four bowser trucks and two emergency fire tenders were called from both the cities, according to officials. A fireman, Ashok Sharma recalled that even though no injuries have been reported, one person was taken to the hospital for a checkup as a precaution. "When we reached the spot of the incident then no one was there, but I did hear that they brought one person to the hospital," he told ANI. The fireman added, "This incident happened on the Ahmedabad-Baroda expressway. The tanker was originally going to Ahmedabad side but it crossed onto the wrong side when the accident happened. We had got to know that there is nitrogen in the tanker, and when we reached then we saw a lot of smoke coming out so we controlled it with foam and water." (ANI)
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