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The toll in the accident which occurred in the cooling tower of the HPCL Visakha refinery last week rose to nine on Monday, with one more worker succumbing to burn injuries in a private hospital here. According to company sources, 38 workers are still undergoing treatment in various hospitals here and also in Mumbai.
S. Roy Choudhury, the Chairman and Managing Director of the HPCL, who visited the various hospitals, told reporters here on Monday that the causes of the accident were still being investigated and a high-level team was going into it. At the moment, all efforts were being made to provide the best possible treatment to the injured workers and to instill confidence among the workforce and their families. "It is a most unfortunate accident. We still have to ascertain the cause. We follow all the best safety protocols and practices in the industry and it is to be determined how it happened," he said.
He said the compensation, as announced by Union Minister for Petroleum Veerappa Moily, would be paid to the HPCL workers and the best possible deal would be given also to the contract workers. Efforts would be made to take care of the education of the injured workers and the HPCL would stand by the families, he asserted.
On the follow-up action, he said after ascertaining the causes action would be taken and, if the contractors were found guilty, action would be initiated against them as well. All steps would be taken to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. He said at present the refinery was functioning at 40 per cent of the rated capacity, as two units were shut down, and efforts woudl be made to bring it back to normalcy. The capacity of the refinery would be expanded in future, he added.
Roy Choudhury said the HPCL was also scouting for foreign partners for setting up a 15-million-tonne refinery in the Petroleum, Chemical, Petro-chemical Investment Region (PCPIR) coming up between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada. The estimated cost of the project would be Rs 50,000 crores, he said. It would be the anchor unit in the PCPIR.
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