Title - Move products by rail: Court to oil firms

In the backdrop of a road accident last month in Kannur involving an LPG tanker, the Kerala High Court Thursday asked public sector oil companies to look into the viability of transporting their products through the railways.

The division bench of Justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair made this observation after hearing a petition seeking a judicial probe into last month's LPG tanker-lorry explosion in Kannur in which 17 people were killed.

The petition also sought direction from the court to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), whose tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) overturned and led to large scale destruction, to immediately hand out compensation to the next of kin of the 17 victims.

The bench opined that oil companies should see if they can make provision for laying railway lines to their present storage plants and to ensure that any new storage plants, when commissioned, should have full rail connectivity.

The Kannur district authorities said that 46 shops and houses along with 11 vehicles had been damaged in the tragedy and the total loss was estimated at Rs.five crore.

The state government has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs.one million to the next of kin of those killed and up to Rs.five lakh to the injured and has asked the IOC authorities to see if they could provide a job to at least one person in every family which lost their kin in last month's tragedy.