Six workers died and 17 others suffered injuries in a blast in thermal power station (TPS) II of NLC India Limited at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. The blast happened in unit 5 of TPS II around 9.55am.
The injured workers were given first aid at NLCIL general hospital and were later referred to a private hospital in Chennai for advanced treatment. Eleven of the 17 injured are said to be in a critical condition.
The accident took place at the fifth unit of the Centre-run thermal power station-II (210 MW x 7) when workers were in the process of resuming operations in the morning.
The six men were aged between 25 and 42 years, according to the official cited by the news agency. The injured include employees who have sustained at least 40% burn injuries according to an initial assessment, the official said.
The victims were identified as Selamarasan, Arun Kumar, Padmanabhan, Ramanathan, Venkatesa Perumal and Nagaraj. NLCIL said all of them were contract workers.
According to NLCIL sources, “The Unit V had shut down after it had tripped on Tuesday night. The workers and engineering staff were attempting to revive the unit when a fire reportedly broke out in the boiler, resulting in the explosion.”
Power generation in the unit was stalled following the accident, while all other units in the station and other thermal power plants functioned as usual.
Rescue work is still on and senior officials have rushed to the spot.
