Boiler tube explosion in NTPC plant kills 20
Death toll likely to spiral as over 100 injured, several critically
RAE BARELI/NEW DELHI : At least 20 people were killed and around 100 injured in an explosion that ripped through a governmentrun coal-fired power plant in Rae Bareli on Wednesday afternoon.
A statement from the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) reported a “sudden abnormal sound” around 3.30pm at a recently commissioned 500 megawatt unit of the 1550 megawatt (MW) plant in Unchahar.
“There was an explosion inside the boiler. After the coal burns it gets deposited and has to be cleared. The people who died were engaged in that cleaning,” said a senior NTPC executive, requesting anonymity.
The plant has been shut down but several workers were still feared trapped under the debris as visuals showed people with severe burn injuries. The cause of the accident wasn’t immediately known. It is gathered that four AGMs of NTPC have also been reported injured in the accident.
At the time of incident around 150 labourers were working at the site. “Total number of casualties might go up once the blades of the boiler are cut,” additional director general (law and order) Anand Kumar told HT. About 22 victims with severe burn injuries have been referred to Lucknow, the police officer said.
State principal secretary Home Arvind Kumar also con- firmed the deaths and injuries.
The accident occurred in the ash-handling section of the plant and ash gushed out at high-temperature, burying several workers, said Lalmani Verma, an engineer at NTPC. “At that time the temperature was more than 140 degree Celsius and pressure was 765 kilogram millimeter square. It is so high that people within 100 meter radium can be harmed”.
“In NTPC Unchahar, Unit No. 6 at around 1530 hrs on 01.11.2017 there was sudden abnormal sound at 20 mt. elevation and there was opening in corner no.2 from which hot flue gases and steam escaped affecting the people working around the area,” India’s largest power-generation utility said in a statement.
The project supplies electricity to UP, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttranchal.
The plant is presently operational and generating around 640 MW.
The government rushed emergency aid workers and pressed into service all available ambulances in the city, around 110 kilometres from the state capital of Lucknow. The injured are being treated at hospitals in Raebareli, Lucknow and Allahabad.
Experts sounded caution on the industrial disaster.
“An incident involving a high pressure and high temperature area can have serious repercussions. This appears to be a very unusual incident because NTPC has a high record of safety. Let us wait for the investigation report,” said Anil Razdan, India’s former power secretary.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who is on a three-day visit to Mauritius, announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the families of the deceased, Rs 50,000 for the seriously injured and Rs 25,000 for the injured. “Every possible help will be given,” he tweeted.
The government rushed a 32-member team of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) to the spot and sent 150 ambulances.
“My sympathies are with the families of the deceased,” Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi tweeted. His mother and party president Sonia Gandhi is the local member of Parliament.
“Sonia Gandhi has asked All India Congress Committee general secretary (incharge UP) Ghulam Nabi Azad and Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar to visit the site and meet victims. She is in touch with the people and partymen in Rae Bareli and getting details,” said her Lok Sabha representative KL Sharma over the phone.
Union power minister RK Singh will reach Rae Bareli by tomorrow to take stock of the situation, official sources said. UP ministers Suresh Khanna and Swami Prasad Maurya left for Rae Bareli.
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi approved the power plant in name of her husband Feroze Gandhi in 1981. The unit ran under debt for almost ten years when state chief minister Kalyan Singh handed it over to NTPC in 1991 to clear the dues, NTPC officials said.