Toll in explosion at NTPC unit in Rae Bareli is 45, not 32, shows RTI reply to The Indian Express

Scroll.in: National: Sunday, January 21, 2018.

The toll in the boiler explosion at a unit of thermal power firm NTPC in Uttar Pradesh’s Unchahar town in Rae Bareli district in November 2017 is 45, The Indian Express reported on Saturday.

The last official toll that the power plant had released had said that 32 people had died in the explosion on November 1, 2017. The explosion was one of the country’s worst industrial accidents in years, injuring more than 100 workers.

In a reply to a query filed by The Indian Express under the Right to Information Act, NTPC said that 42 of the 45 people who had died were contract workers who were painting the boiler at the time of the explosion. They were linked to the firms Siemens Limited, Indwell, AR Singh Construction, Power Mech Projects, Amit Enterprises, R K Construction, P K Tripathi Electrical Engineering Works and Vijay Construction.

The power utility also said that the company’s internal probe committee, which was supposed to submit its report on the incident by December 3, 2017, had not done it till January 17, 2018. The report was expected in a few days, the utility’s spokesperson said.

In its RTI response, the NTPC said: “An ex-gratia amount of Rs 20 lakh was given to the dependents of each deceased person.” An amount of Rs 3.47 crore for the deceased workers, was “provisionally deposited by the NTPC, on behalf of the concerned contracting agencies, towards employees’ compensation with EC commissioner and additional labour commissioner, Lucknow”, it said.

“An ex-gratia amount of Rs 10 lakh is given to the persons sustaining major injuries and Rs 2 lakh to the persons sustaining minor injuries,” NTPC added.

A spokesperson said that the utility has taken several measures to improve safety at its units. An investigation carried out by the Uttar Pradesh labour department had found that sheer negligence on part of the NTPC Unchahar plant was the reason behind the explosion. The team had found that clinkers were formed in the boiler duct from stone-like residue from the burning of coal. The staff at the power plant did not clear the clinkers which is believed to be the main reason behind the explosion, the probe team had said.