Two years on, NTPC admits to counterfeit pipes

Around two years ago, a worker was killed during an equipment test at NTPC’s then under construction Meja power plant in Uttar Pradesh.

In December, the country’s largest power producer admitted in the Bombay High Court that some of its pipes at that plant are counterfeit and it continues to use some of them.

NTPC’s tryst with counterfeit pipes dates back to January 14, 2017, when a worker at

Meja was found dead. The death was due to an accident during the test, an NTPC’s spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that such routine tests do not lead to any fatality. However, in this case, a life was lost due to unauthorised presence in the cordoned-off area. In a separate response on January 25, 2019, to an RTI application filed by Business Standard, seeking details on industrial deaths at its under construction sites, NTPC said a death was reported on January 14, 2017 at Meja plant due to a fall from a height.

The January 2017 equipment testing at Meja also opened up a trail of investigation as one of the pipes failed to withstand the test conditions. The investigation, according to NTPC, led to the discovery that certificates stated to have been issued by a particular manufacturer were not relevant to the pipes supplied.

Two years later, Meja power plant found a mention in a Bombay High Court order dated December 21, 2018. “Mr Chandrasekhar is present in court. He states that he is aware that certain pipes are installed in theMega (Meja) Urja plant of NTPC on the basis of a misrepresentation that the same are manufactured by the plaintiff,” the order, available on the court website reads. M Chandrasekaran is an executive director with NTPC and the plaintiff is a reputed pipe supplier fighting the infringement of intellectual property case against a steel trader. “The statement recorded in the December 21, 2018 order does seem to suggest that the NTPC is accepting that the pipes supplied are counterfeit to the extent that they were supplied by domestic manufacturers with forged and fabricated certificates purportedly issued by international pipe manufacturers,” said Anand Varma, a Supreme Court lawyer who reviewed the order for Business Standard.

In 2017, a worker was killed during an equipment test at NTPC’s then underconstruction Meja power plant in UP