An engineer was killed and five were injured when a steam-pipe burst in one of the units of Thermal Power Station-I of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation on Tuesday, when the Navratna company was to have celebrated its 58th Raising Day.
As a result, power generation in the 100-MW unit was stalled. Otherwise, all other units in the NLC worked as usual, yielding 1,980 MW of power against the installed capacity of 2,490 MW. Some units have already been shut for maintenance. Mining operation was maintained.
The deceased was Selvaraj, NLC Chief Manager (Mechanical), TPS-I.
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Those injured were Krishnamurthy, an executive engineer; Abishek, a graduate engineer trainee; and Sivalingam, a contractor; and contract workmen Jothi and Balamurugan.
While Jothi and Balamurughan were admitted to a private hospital at Puducherry, the others were referred to a Chennai hospital. NLC sources said it was the first time in the company’s history that such an accident had occurred in a thermal power station. TPS-I has nine units: six of 50-MW capacity each and three of 100-MW capacity each. The accident occurred in the seventh unit.
The sources said that when the pipe carrying high pressure steam burst, the broken pieces hit the ceiling and dislodged a ceiling fan and chunks of mortar, which fell on Selvaraj, killing him instantaneously. From the broken pipe, hot steam and water spilled on other workers, causing them burns of various degrees.
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As sombre mood prevailed in the Neyveli Township, the company management cancelled the Raising Day function — in which Chairman-cum-Managing Director B. Surender Mohan and his predecessors were to have participated — as well as other programmes.
Mr. Mohan told The Hindu that he constituted a committee of executives to find out the reasons for the incident and suggest remedial measures.
“The committee has been asked to submit its report within a week.”