Under the scanner after an ash-pipe exploded at its Unchahar plant in Rae Bareli, the National Thermal Power Corporation on Friday dismissed allegations that the unit was commissioned in a hurry.
Meanwhile, the death toll in the accident climbed to 32, as per the NTPC, even as 50 patients are still under treatment in various hospitals in Lucknow, Rae Bareli and New Delhi.
Rae Bareli District Magistrate Sanjay Khatri in his report to the government said all dead and injured had been identified and all bodies recovered from the debris after three operations by the NDRF. He also put the figure of the dead at 31, one less than quoted by the NTPC.
The NTPC plant in Unchahar was scheduled to be commissioned in December 2016 but in actual happened in March this year, while the commercial date of operations scheduled in April took place in September, said the energy conglomerate.
“This was done after full verification. It would be incorrect to say that it was done in a hurry,” said Gurdeep Singh, chairman and managing director, NTPC.
Mr. Singh dismissed charges of lapses saying “maximum” expertise was present at the site when the boiler exploded, including the head of Operations, and heads of ash handling and boiler maintenance. He said it was a “rarest” of incidents.
“Our engineers are very experienced. [Engineers with ]almost 28- 30 years [experience], those people were present at that moment... Till all facts are clear, anything said would be mere conjecture,” Mr. Singh said.
The NTPC committee set up under its senior executive director S.K.Roy, started its probe and gathered data log from the plant. The committee will submit its report in a month. Experts and engineers of BHEL are already at the site. A magisterial probe by the government will also be held simultaneously.
Mr. Singh, while talking to reporters in New Delhi, said the recommendations of the probe committee would be implemented in existing as well as future plants and shared with other plant operators.
The NTPC has been accused of negligience and ignoring warning signs by the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, with the former demanding a judicial probe into the incident. Responding to these charges, the NTPC late on Thursday clarified that the units did not trip on two occasions on the day of the incident “as being rumoured.”
It also said that 500MW unit at Unchahar, was designed, constructed and manufactured by the BHEL and not by a non-Indian manufacturer.
Meanwhile, seven more critical patients were airlifted to Delhi on Thursday night by the Indian Air Force, taking the total number to be airlifted to 12.
Doctors at the Civil Hospital in Lucknow, where most of the injured were admitted, said a few more could be airlifted to Delhi soon.
“There are 15 patients still receiving treatment [at the hospital]...the goverment is making efforts to shift the critical patients,” said A. K. Singh, a medical official at the Civil Hospital.
Among those who died in Lucknow was an additional general manager of NTPC, while two other AGMs were shifted to Delhi.
The NTPC has shut down the unit where the accident took place and it would take 3-6 months to put it back on track.
