A major fire accident that occurred in the 6×150 megawatt Srisailam Left Bank underground hydel station brought to a halt the power generation at the unit that has been going on uninterrupted from July 20.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials confirmed that totally nine dead bodies were recovered from the accident site.
They said that a 39-member Fire Rescue and Disaster Management team led by Comdt. Siddarth Raha were deployed. The team had been despatched by the CISF National Industrial Security Academy at Hakimpet to the Srisailam Dam site.
They left at 8.35 a.m. and reached the dam site at 1p.m. "They recovered nine bodies from the tunnel and controlled the fire and smoke," a senior CISF official said.
Deceased in Srisailam power project fire mishap:
DE Srinivas Goud, Hyderabad
AE Venkatak Rao, Palvancha
AE Mohan Kumar, Hyderabad
AE Uzma Fathima, Hyderabad
AE Sundar, Suryapet
Plant attendant Rambabu, Khammam
Junior plant attendant Kiran, Palvancha.
Amaran Battery company Hyderabad staff: Vniesh Kumar and Mahesh Kumar
According to information reaching here, a short circuit in the terminal panel of the fourth unit of the hydel station is said to be the immediate cause of the accident. However, the authorities of TS-Genco said they would arrive at a conclusion only after finding out what exactly happened.
It is learnt that the hydel staff initially tried to douse the fire in the panel board with the help of portable extinguishers but in vain.
When contacted, Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Genco D. Prabhakar Rao, who rushed there along with a team of top Genco executives in the night, told The Hindu that the cause of the accident was yet to be known and the rescue team was unable to enter the tunnel with a thick sheet of smoke engulfing the tunnel.
Telangana Minister for Energy G. Jagadish Reddy also rushed to the spot in the night. A thick smoke which caused zero visibility obstructed fire fighting and fire personnel managed to gain entry into the shallow unit after three aborted attempts, according to Mr. Reddy.
CM expresses shock
In a statement, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao expressed shock over the accident. “The CM is eliciting information on the accident on a regular basis and wished that all those who are trapped in the plant come out safely,” the CMO officials said. He spoke to Mr. Prabhakar Rao and Mr. Reddy about the rescue work being taken up.
The CM ordered probe by Crime Investigation Department of police.
The authorities of Nagarkurnool district, including District Collector L. Sharman and Superintendent of Police Sai Shekar, rushed there in the night to oversee the rescue operations.
As the power generation in the Left Bank power house has come to a halt, the authorities of Srisailam dam increased the spillway discharge of flood to over 4.29 lakh cusecs by lifting the 10 gates by three ft each to a total height of 18 ft each. Another 30,000 cusecs is also being let into the river course with power generation in the Right Bank power house of AP-Genco.
The Minister was camping at Nagarjunasagar overnight to open the crest gates of the project in the morning in view of heavy inflows caused by rains. The generation at the power house commenced a month ago when Srisailam, which is on the upper reaches of Nagarjunasagar on the Krishna, started flooding.
(With inputs from B. Chandrashekhar and Abhinay Deshpande)