A major portion of a cooling plant of GMR Energy group’s 220 MW barge-mounted power plant was destroyed in a fire while it was being dismantled on Saturday morning at Kumbabhisekham near here. However, no casualties have been reported.
East Godavari District Fire Officer Ch. Ratna Babu said that the fibre sheets in the cooling plant caught fire around 7.50 a.m. and the flames were brought under control by 11.30 a.m.
The fire was reported from the seaside thus averting a major mishap as the plant is adjacent to Gas Authority of India Limited’s pipeline. Tension prevailed for four hours as the power plant site is also adjacent to the Kakinada Deep Sea Port.
A few weeks ago, most of the power plant equipment had been transported to Turkey. The country’s only barge-mounted power plant was decommissioned in 2013.
“A major portion of the 500-metre-long and 15-metre-tall plant was lost in the fire. The GMR authorities have been told to submit a report on the incident and loss of property,” said Mr. Ratna Babu.
“The cooling plant has been gutted while the dismantling exercise was in progress on the project site. We are investigating the cause of the fire,” said a Hyderabad-based official from the GMR group.
GMR Energy corporate relations and plant in-charge (maintenance) K. Vijay Kumar told The Hindu that the investigation was on to ascertain the cause of the incident and other details (including loss).
Fire tenders have been deployed on the project site and the situation will be monitored till Sunday as several installations of oil and natural gas and port are located in the area.