Steel ministry to probe Bhilai plant tragedy

Ministry to conduct separate probe with no SAIL official in committee

The steel ministry will conduct a probe to establish the causes behind the gas leakage at Bhilai Steel Plant on Thursday, which led to the death of six persons and injured about three dozen others. “The ministry’s probe will be different from the one instituted by SAIL (Steel Authority of India Ltd),” Steel Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said.

The minister was in Bhilai to meet those injured in the tragedy.

He said the probe would be carried out by a ministerial committee, adding the names of the panel’s members would be announced within two days. No SAIL official would be included in the committee, he said, adding the panel would submit a report on the accident within 30 days.

“Officials found guilty of negligence will, for sure, have to face strict action,” the minister said. As the central and state governments had taken the incident “very seriously”, there would be no laxity in the probe, he added.

The Chhattisgarh government will carry out a judicial inquiry into the matter.

On Thursday, the main header of pump house-II at the Bhilai Steel Plant, which supplied water to the gas-cleaning plant (GCP) of the blast furnace, had ruptured. As water supply to the GCP stopped, there was a sudden loss in water pressure to the GCP and the blast furnace gas from the scrubbers entered the water pipeline. The gas, reported to be a composition of deadly methane and carbon monoxide, started leaking from the ruptured part of the pipeline and affected the employees attending to the breakdown in the pump house.