01/12/2017 NTPC plant kept snag-hit unit running under anniversary pressure?

- Times of India

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NTPC plant kept snag-hit unit running under

anniversary pressure?
TNN | Nov 5, 2017, 05.42 AM IST

LUCKNOW: The boiler blast in 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 x 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 o 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.
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01/12/2017 NTPC plant kept snag-hit unit running under anniversary pressure? - Times of India

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 in Lucknow said the grand celebrations have been cancelled. "After a ag hoisting, employee and their
family members would keep a twominute silence to mourn the death of sta," he said.

NTPC blast a result of negligence: Labour minister

Even as a three-member inquiry committee headed by NTPC executive director SK Roy is conducting a probe into the boiler
blast in Unit no. 6 at Unchahar power plant, UP government's labour minister Swami Prasad Maurya said on Saturday that prima
facie the incident was a result of gross negligence on part of NTPC management.

Maurya said the plant should have been shut down completely before any repair work was taken up. "In this case, workers
were deployed to break ash clinkers manually without shutting down the unit completely. This shows gross negligence on the
part of NTPC," Maurya said. This is the rst time that a UP minister has openly criticised NTPC management over the blast that
left 33 dead.

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