4 killed in fire at ONGC plant in Navi Mumbai; rescue operation underway

The blaze erupted around 7 am in the gas processing plant of the ONGC located in Uran area of neighbouring Navi Mumbai.

Four people were killed and three others injured after a fire broke out at the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) plant in Navi Mumbai township of Maharashtra on Tuesday, police said.

The ONGC said there was no impact on oil processing and that the gas was diverted to its Hazira plant in Surat district of Gujarat.

The blaze erupted around 7 am in a processing plant of the ONGC located in Uran area of neighbouring Navi Mumbai, the police said.

"Four people have been killed and three others injured in the mishap," a senior police official said.

"Fire broke out in storm water drainage in Uran Plant early morning successfully doused within two hours by fire fighting team. #ONGCs robust crisis mitigation preparedness helped put off this major fire in a very short time," the ONGC said in a tweet.

Earlier, in another tweet, it said, "A fire broke out in storm water drainage early morning 2day in Uran oil & gas processing plant.ONGC fire services & crisis management team immediately pressed in2 action. Fire is being contained. No impact on Oil processing.Gas diverted to Hazira Plant. Situation is being assessed.

Nearly 22 fire brigade tenders, including that of the ONGC, Navi Mumbai civic body and other agencies, were at the spot, the police official said.

The injured persons were admitted to nearby hospitals for treatment, he said.

The cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, he added.

Business Standard

Ikea to hire 5,000 workers for Navi Mumbai store; create 10-k jobs in 3 yrs

Ikea opened its first store in the country in Hyderabad in August, where it employs 1,000 people.

Swedish furniture giant Ikea is planning to hire 10,000, both direct and indirect, in Maharashtra over the next two to three years, a senior company executive has said.

The company opened its first store in Hyderabad in August this year and the Navi Mumbai will be the second store in the country.

"Next year, we are opening the Navi Mumbai store, for which we are planning to recruit 5,000 directly and an equal number will be hired indirectly over the two to three years," Ikea India's people and culture manager Anna-Carin Mansson told PTI here.

This will include directly hiring 1,000 by mid-next year and 1,500 indirectly for services, including assembly among others, she said adding as per the Ikea policy, 50 per cent of this recruitment will be of women at all levels.

"We believe in equality and providing a balanced, safe and secure work environment for all employees. We are also open for recruiting from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) communities," she added.

The world's largest furniture chain is looking to hire people in ecommerce, sales, logistics, digital and Human Resource's and mostly they hire locals, she said.

"With our employee friendly policies, we are expecting to keep the attrition levels very low. We believe in value- based recruitment, where the core values of an individual is considered and not what is said in the CV. We provide equal opportunities to all our co-workers, help them grow and enable them to follow their passion," she added.

Ikea has several employee friendly policies, such as day care facilities, parental leave policy, transport policy, competence development, mentoring, pension plan among others.

"Maharashtra is an important market for us. We have been sourcing from the state for many decades and now we are ready to enter the market in 2019 with our full offer to be able to serve all the customers," Ikea India market manager for Maharashtra Per Hornell said.

Ikea opened its first store in the country in Hyderabad in August, where it employs 1,000 people.

The company is the first major single brand retailer to get FDI approval and plans to open several stores and multiple touch points across the main cities over the next 10 years .

Ikea has four land sites in Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi/NCR, and continues to look for more in other major cities.

Ikea operates 423 Ikea stores in 50 countries with a sales volume of 38.3 billion euros

Business Standard