At a time when the country is battling the COVID-19 pandemic, a slew of industrial accidents have been taking place: The gas leak at the LG Polymers plant in Vishakapatnam which left 11 dead, another gas leak at the Shakti Paper Mill in Chhatisgarh which left seven works ill, and now a boiler blast in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, that has injured eight.
At least eight people have been injured in a boiler blast in the government owned-Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited (NLCL) thermal power plant near Cuddalore. The workers sustained burn injuries and have been referred to a private hospital in Trichy, after receiving first aid at the NLCL hospital. While overheat and high pressure are seen as reasons for the blast, the actual cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained.
Of the eight that were injured, two are regular workers while the other six are contract workers. Sources say the condition of two of the contract workers, who sustained 70 percent burns, are critical while the others are stable. The workers have been referred to the hospital in Trichy for advanced treatment.
The boiler blast reportedly happened in Thermal Power Station II and five fire tenders were deployed to douse the fire for more than an hour.
Thermal Power Station II (TPS II) has seven units with a capacity of 210MW each. The overall capacity of the plant is 1,470 MW. The power generated at Neyveli is shared among the southern states—Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu gets 47.40 percent of the power generated at NLC as its share. TPS II has over 2000 workers, including regular and contract workers. It includes employees in the administration and distribution sections.
NLC, a Navaratna Government of India company in the fossil fuel-mining sector, produces 30 million tons of lignite from from opencast mines in Neyveli.