The BPCL depot at Burmamines in Jamshedpur outside which an oil tanker (right) caught fire earlier this week. Picture by Animesh Sengupta

The plan to move oil depots near Jamshedpur railway station have been fast-tracked after Monday’s horrifying fire that gutted three tankers and spread fear and panic for over three hours in the area spread over a radius of half a kilometre in Burmamines.

Three oil companies, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) that have long operated these depots in the Mills and Godown Area, will move to Khunti near Ranchi and Haldipokar in Potka in East Singhbhum.

Officials associated with the oil companies said the idea was always there to move the depots away from populated areas. If the October 2009 week-long fire at Jaipur’s Sitapura Industrial Area depot was a catalyst, Monday’s tanker fire in Jamshedpur steeled the oil firms’ resolve to shift the depots.

IOCL officials said they had acquired over 30 acre at Khunti, about 90km from Ranchi. “We are in the process of shifting the depot to Khunti, the spadework for which has already began. It will take about two years time,” said B.K. Nayak, senior manager of IOCL's Jamshedpur depot.

Petrol and diesel would reach Khunti via a pipeline from Odisha’s Paradip refinery that was scheduled to be commissioned in March 2013. Tenders for it have already been floated. From Khunti, oil would be supplied to retailers by tankers.

Both BPCL and HPCL depots in the Burmamines area would be moving to Haldipokhar, about 25 km from Jamshedpur. Land acquisition is on. “We have already acquired over 25 acre for the project. We will require another 8 acre for relocating the oil depot,” said an oil company official.

HPCL’s Jeetendra Mishra said that along with BPCL, they, too, would be moving to Haldipokhar.

The area surrounding the oil depots at Burmamines, close to Tatanagar station, has seen a steady influx of people over the years. And accidents keep happening as there is little parking space.

Often tankers park on the main road posing a huge risk. It is feared the spark that led to devastating fire on Monday may have been caused after one tanker grazed against another while reversing.