Comments
The NTPC management has blamed three of its engineers for the Unchahar plant accident, which killed over 30 persons in November 2017, an internal inquiry committee report has revealed. The engineers also died in the accident.
BusinessLine has acquired a two-page executive summary of the report with the help of an RTI application.
The accident happened on the afternoon of November 1, 2017, at the Unchahar thermal power plant, Uttar Pradesh. The plant has a total capacity of 1,550 MW. The plant has 5 units of 210 MW and one unit of 500 MW.
The executive summary reveals that the accident happened in the 500 MW unit, which produces over 32 per cent power of the plant. The trigger for the accident was the build-up of coal ash and leaking of boiler tubes, which lead to the abnormal functioning of the boiler and furnace resulting in escape of super hot gases and ash from a mechanical device called economiser, which led to 30 persons dying almost immediately and over 70 people suffering very serious burn injuries.
BusinessLine sought expert opinions on the executive summary and they are of the view that when the furnace and boiler functions in an abnormal manner, the standard operating procedure is not to be in the vicinity of these mega pieces of equipment, cut coal supply and wait for the unit to cool down. Another anomaly is the opening of the economiser, which is never done when these types of equipment are malfunctioning. If the ash was building up in the boiler, it would be most prudent to shut down the unit and then take remedial measures.
Doubts over findings
The inquiry committee has placed the blame on the engineers, who died in the most harrowing manner as they suffered a devastating hail of ultra hot ash and gases. Such castigation raises the question on how the committee could blame the three for the accident, as they never faced the inquiry committee. Their horrifying deaths raises more questions about the unit’s operability and principles of natural justice followed by the committee.
Senior NTPC officials, on conditions of anonymity, said the engineers were made a scapegoat, while other senior members of the management remained unaffected. The senior management was aware that the unit was facing serious issues but still asked the plant personnel to keep the unit running. The officials also pointed out that a number of contractual labourers were around the furnace completing insulation work, which ideally should have been done before the unit was commissioned.
The summary reads that there was a build up of ash in the furnace but the team of engineers engaged in ash removal was hopeful of clearing it. But this was an error of judgment by the three engineers. This error, coupled with boiler tube leakage, lead to the accident.
The summary has other unanswered question about the timing of forming the committee of inquiry. It claims that the committee was formed on the very day of the accident and it also visited the site on the day of the accident. NTPC officials said that how could the committee function safely when the rescue operations were itself underway at the unit.
NTPC officials were not available for official comment in spite of two questionnaires sent to the management.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.