Mumbai:
An enquiry has been ordered by the Navy into the gas leak on an under-construction ship at the Mazagaon dock in Mumbai yesterday that killed one of its officers.
Commander Kuntal Wadhwa, 42, died after inhaling carbon dioxide that leaked from a
malfunctioning unit just a little after noon during machinery trials. The yet-to-be-commissioned ship is one of three Kolkata class destroyers being built under the Navy's Project 15 A.
"A Board of Inquiry has been ordered by the Indian Navy to investigate the causes leading to the accident," a statement from the Navy said.
Two employees of the defence ministry shipyard, who were hospitalised due to the gas leakage, have been discharged.
The warship is one of the most advanced vessels made in India and is fitted with state of the art weaponry and sensors.
Only last week, two officers were killed in a fire aboard a Navy submarine INS Sindhuratna, which had been refitted and was being sea-tested.
Navy chief Admiral DK Joshi had resigned owning moral responsibility for that and several other accidents in the last few months, including the blast that sank another submarine INS Sindhurakshak in August last year, killing all 18 sailors and officers on board.