Traffic on the Bengaluru-Mangaluru National Highway came to a halt near Doddatappale village for more than eight hours following a leak in the LPG gas tanker after it toppled in Sakleshpur taluk on Tuesday.
The LPG-filled tanker, bound for Bengaluru from Mangaluru, toppled after the driver lost control over the vehicle around 6 am.
As a precautionary measure, traffic was halted for an hour on the route.
However, vehicles had to be halted again following heavy leakage of LPG from the tanker.
Till the LPG was refilled into other containers, vehicles continued to be stranded.
Three empty tankers and gas-refilling machines were brought from Mangaluru for refilling purpose. The refilling work started at 3 pm and will continue up to 11 pm. As the highway was completely closed for traffic, hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the stretch on both the sides.
Police personnel had taken precautionary measures to avert any untoward incident.
KSRTC Mangaluru depot Manager Muralidhar said that no bus was diverted in the morning.
Due to another traffic jam in the evening, two KSRTC Volvo buses heading towards Bangaluru deviated and came via Mysuru, on the Mani-Mysuru Road.
http://m.deccanherald.com/content/497308/lpg-leak-halts-traffic-nh4.html/