The truth is, only luck and circumstance separate Vadodara from another Bhopal. Ringed as it is by chemical industries, the danger is heightened by the shoddy infrastructure, the cheek-by-jowl existence and no proper planning. The city is surrounded by 362 hazardous chemical units, including 67 deemed Major Accident Hazard (MAH) units, and scores of other chemical units in the petrochemical complex and the Nandesari area.

One spark could trigger a major accident.

When a chemical zone began developing on the northern outskirts of Vadodara at the petrochemical complex area covering 16 villages, the area was sparsely populated while the city limits ended at Alkapuri, some 20 km away. Successive governments could not check the massive human growth, with its ancillary paraphernalia, near industrial undertakings.

Ironically, though environmental laws prevent human habitation close to hazardous chemical industries, as many as 100 housing quarters of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation and 800 houses made by the Gujarat Housing Board fall within a 200-metre radius of such units. This is, of course, in addition to scores of other dwellings.

The key to managing such a disaster is organisation, and the key to this organisation is the central control room in the petrochemicals area. Set up jointly by public and private sector giants, the CCR is meant to act as a guide in the event of such an accident. If the CCR is akin to medicine in times of ill-health, the problem lies in reaching the patient.

CCR Member Secretary B S Chadha is confident when he says the unit is equipped to handle a Bhopal-type disaster, but lists the various obstacles in the way. To begin with, the area has a large population -- domestic as well as professional -- making it especially vulnerable.

The CCR controls 16 villages but has no wireless access to any, thanks to proposals for the same being held up in Delhi. The frequency was approved two years ago, but the final clearance to make the sets operational is awaited. ``When installed, the system will have a public address facility fitted on top of the village panchayat building. The villagers, too, could contact us in case of a problem,'' says Chadha.

Things are little better at the Nandesari chemical estate, home to small and medium-scale units. There is a police outpost but it has no vehicle, there is only one fire-fighter and only one ambulance. Add to this the shoddy approach and arterial roads, and you have the perfect formula for a disaster.

Officials at the Nandesari Notified Area Office said there was an ambulance with the nearby Deepak Trust and fire tenders can be loaned from the large PSUs, including IPCL, GSFC and Gujarat Refinery. However, they admit that a fire-fighter, an ambulance and a vehicle with the police outpost are ``urgently required''.

Nandesari Industries Association president Mohan Nair says the NIA has written to government agencies for these facilities. Nair says private sector units had the infrastructure to handle accidents, but also conceded, ``All small-scale units may not have everything; they are, after all, small scale''.