Panaji, Aug 22 (IANS): The authorities here Monday ordered the shutdown of a pipeline ferrying naphtha from the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) to a fertilizer company as a fire caused by a gas leakage in it continued even after 72 hours.

Speaking to reporters here, deputy collector Mormugao Levinson Martins said the step had to be taken to quell the fire, which began in the wee hours of Friday morning at Vasco, 30 km from here.

"The (state) disaster management authority has decided to shut down the pipeline until the situation improves. The fire has been on for nearly three days. We hope to pin it down now," Martins said.

"The leakage happened when naphtha was being pumped out of a vessel which had docked at the MPT (Goa's only major port located located 35 km from here)," Martins said.

Eight people, including an Indian Navy sailor, sustained burn injuries after naphtha leaking from a pipeline caught fire after the fumes came in contact with high tension electrical wires overhead.

Several homes in the vicinity of the pipeline have been evacuated and the chief minister has already ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident.