Indian Chemical News is reproducing the Deepak Nitrite Ltd’s clarification on incident at It Nandesari facility.

Deepak’s clarification:

June 9, 2022: The Company vide its letter dated 2nd June, 2022 intimated about the incidence of fire around the warehouse section of Company’s manufacturing site located at Nandesari, District Vadodara, in the State of Gujarat (‘Plant’), wherein the company had mentioned that it has informed all the concerned authorities, the cause of fire is being investigated and that the manufacturing operations shall be resumed after clearance of the damaged warehouse and that the Company is committed to extend all assistance to the relevant authorities investigating the matter.

b. Further, vide letter dated 8th June, ?022, the Company has also provided the updates on the incidence of fire, wherein details of damage to warehouse/office and some utilities was informed. Moreover, the Company has also informed about ongoing stability studies being conducted and that the Company is in the process of submission of necessary applications / documents sought by various authorities in order to obtain necessary permission to restart the Plant at the earliest.

We appreciate the prompt and professional initiatives by the government authorities wherein they have echoed similar desire i.e. to restart the Plant only after stability studies / other necessary compliances are done and they too find these satisfactory for safe restart. The Financial Express article mentions of the simitar approach by the respective government authorities viz. Director of lndustrial Safety and Health. Other government authorities have asked similar satisfaction to confirm safe restart of the Plant.

We are confident that the regulatory authorities upon finding these reports satisfactory as well as all other compliances met with would be prompt in allowing us to restart the Plant.

We shall further update by way of public announcement upon receiving clearance from authorities and starting of operation of the Plant.

As mentioned in our letter dated 2no June, 2022, we reiterate that the Company is in the process of ascertaining the impact of the incidence and that both loss of assets as well as loss of business are covered under insurance.

The Company has promptly informed about a[[ major developments with regard to the said incidence in due compliance of provisions of Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 and shall continue to do the same.

Kindly take the same on your record.

June 8, 2022: We refer to our earlier letter dated 2nd June, 2022, intimating about the incidence of fire around the warehouse section of Company’s manufacturing site located at Nandesari, District Vadodara, in the State of Gujarat (‘Plant’).

ln this regard, we would like to inform that the fire caused damage to warehouse / offices / some utilities and part of manufacturing facility of Sodium Nitrite that were facing the warehouse. All the other manufacturing facilities including other two streams of Sodium Nitrite are unaffected and in safe conditions. Stability studies and other assessments are simultaneously being conducted to reassure safe operations.

The Company is in the process of submitting necessary applications / documents as sought by various authorities in order to obtain necessary permissions to restart the Plant, at the earliest.

We shall further update upon receiving clearance from authorities and starting of operation of the Plant.

Updated as on June 3 2022

We would like to reiterate that there have been no casualties as a result of the incident; a total of 7 people received minor injuries and have been administered first-aid treatment. We are taking utmost care of those injured in the incident and they will be discharged soon.

The incident occurred at our warehouse in the Nandesari facility, Gujarat. Our emergency response team, in partnership with the support of local authorities, brought the fire under control within a couple of hours of the incident.

All the properties at the plant are covered in our insurance. The cause of fire is being investigated and the Company is committed to extend assistance to all the relevant authorities investigating into this matter. We expect operations at the Nandesari facility to resume in a phased manner, shortly.

“We are monitoring the situation closely. The safety and well-being of all our employees, and that of the communities around, is of foremost priority to us. All our manufacturing facilities are equipped with best-in-class systems and equipment, that ensure environmentally sustainable production. Our teams are already on-ground facilitating every possible support. Our communication channels are open 24×7, and we shall continue to provide updates and partner closely with all the relevant external stakeholders.”