NTPC plant kept snag-hit unit running under anniversary pressure?

The boiler blast in of NTPC's 500MW unit in Unchahar project that killed 33 people and left 60 critically injured took place days before the `Maharatna'company was to hold its 42nd raising day on November 7.

As a tradition, the celebration would have seen all its 20 power plants across the country , including the Unchahar power project, getting all their units lit up and working to full capacity .This has fuelled speculations that NTPC was under pressure to keep the snag-hit unit number-6 working for the occasion.

All India Power Engineers' Federation chairman Shailendra Dubey said some NTPC engineers did inform the federation about the tremendous pressure to keep the unit in a working state. As reported by TOI, NTPC engineers had detected the fault in the ash evacuation system over an hour before the blast and were working to fix it while keeping the unit working. “That has been normal practice and there was absolutely no requirement to stop the unit,“ NTPC regional executive director, Ravindra Singh Rathi told TOI.

Power generation experts, however, said thermal units often see formation of coagulated coal and ash, or clinkers, which need to be broken manually .“And that exactly seems to have happened in Unchahar. But the pressure inside the furnace kept rising and eventually ripped off part of the boiler to let hot fumes and ash out,“ Dubey said. The probe committee set up by NTPC, too, is examining the causes of rise in pressure inside the furnace.

The blast has forced the NTPC to cancel its annual celebrations, which it has been organising since its inception in 1975. The main function was to be shifted from NTPC headquarters in New Delhi to 2000MW Singrauli plant in Sonbhadra.Besides Singrauli, a grand function was also scheduled in 3000MW Rihand (Sonebhadra), 1550MW Unchahar (Rae Bareli) and 440MW Tanda (Ambedkarnagar).

An NTPC spokesperson said the celebrations have been cancelled. “After hoisting the flag, employee and their family members would keep a two-minute silence to mourn the deaths,“ he said.