‘Boiler’s temp was 140 degrees, hot enough to melt a person’

LUCKNOW: For the labourers working in the Unchahar Thermal Power plant it was a routine repair work, which was necessitated due to a technical fault in the boiler of the plant number 6.

The engineers had detected that a coal chunk was stuck in the pipe of the boiler.

The labourers were called to repair the fault when suddenly at 3.30 pm hot gas and steam escaped from a corner of the boiler duct covering the labourers with hot ash. Within seconds, the bodies covered with hot ash lay scattered at the spot.

Lalmani Verma, an engineer posted at NTPC, told HT that at the time of the explosion the temperature of the steam was 140 degree and pressure in the boiler was 765 kg per mm square.

AROUND 40 LABOURERS WORKING VERY CLOSE TO THE BOILER BORE THE BRUNT OF THE BLAST

“The heat is enough to melt a person,” he said. Around 40 labourers working very close to the boiler bore the brunt of the blast. President of the UP Engineers Association, Shailendra Dubey said it is the first major blast in a power plant in the state in which large numbers of people have lost life.

Around two decades back two labourers had died in an accident in a state run power plant. The instance of boiler blast have been reported in the state government run Obra, Panki and Harduaganj power plants but no deaths had been recorded.