The Maruti Omni fuelled by LPG in flames near Alipore zoo on Tuesday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

An LPG car with eight New Year’s Day tourists caught fire near the zoo on Tuesday, raising questions about the safety of vehicles running on the eco-friendly fuel.

Gopal Pramanik of Bongaon had hired the Maruti Omni in his hometown for a January 1 tour of Dakshineswar, Belur Math and Alipore zoo with his family. Smoke started rising from under the car’s dashboard around 1.50pm.

The family stopped the car near Taj Bengal and could barely scramble out before it burst into flames. Security officials of the hotel hosed down the blaze in half an hour, before the fire brigade arrived.

A preliminary investigation suggests that the LPG kit fitted in the car was illegal. The market is flooded with illegal kits, said experts.

According to police, the gas had leaked out, causing the fire that reduced the car to a burnt shell but did not damage the LPG kit.

“Original kits are multi-valve systems and shut down if there is a leak,” stressed Yash Khare, an LPG kit dealer in the city.

Vehicle-owners go in for counterfeit kits to cut costs — the originals carry a price tag of Rs 25,000 for four-wheelers and Rs 15,000 for three-wheelers, said a transport department official.

While legal LPG kits have to be set up depending on the make of the vehicle, illegal systems comprise mainly domestic LPG cylinders.

There are 1,500-2,000 vehicles in the city fitted with legal LPG kits, added the transport department official. “The number of vehicles with illegal kits is several times the figure,” he admitted.

Automobile expert S.M. Ghosh said: “Illegal LPG kits flourish in the market. It is the responsibility of the motor vehicles department and the police to keep a tab on vehicles illegally run on LPG.”

Pramanik could not provide details of the agency from where he had hired the car or the name of its owner. “We didn’t know that the car was running on LPG. If the cylinder had exploded, we would have died. We had planned a day of fun, but instead had a brush with death, were grilled by the police and returned home by train,” he said.

“We have impounded the vehicle and are consulting experts to determine whether the LPG kit was illegal or not,” said Baidyanath Saha, the officer-in-charge of Alipore police station.

A fire brigade official said the car would be inspected and a report submitted to the motor vehicles department. “It is the department’s responsibility to alert the police if something is amiss,” he added.