Eleven dead in Vizag Steel Plant blast

As many as eleven employees, including four senior officials, died and eight others were seriously injured in a blast on Wednesday night in the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP).

An an oxygen tank was exploded when commissioning a new steel melting shop, which is the part of VSP's 6 million tonnes expansion project.

Deputy general managers L. Srihari and PV Kamalakar, L Srinivasa Rao, AGM and A V Ravichandar, a senior manager of the VSP, Ramesh Datta, Sanjay Das and David of MN Dastur & company, Tarunjit Singh of Siamag company and K Naik and Srinivasa Raju of Bluestar died on the spot.

 

Eight others injured in the incident were shifted to VSP general hospital and local corporate hospitals. Among them, the condition of D S Khalsi, a general manager in VSP, is stated to be critical.

Steel minister, Beni Prasad Verma, Andhra Pradesh chief minister, N Kiran Kumar Reddy, and the state Opposition leader, N Chandrababu Naidu, on Thursday visited the accident site and the hospitals where the injured were being treated.

VSP sources, however, said that production in the plant was and the damage to property in the blast was also minimal.

Following the accident, stated to be the worst of its kind in the history of VSP, the management of the steel plant is expected to once again postpone its proposed initial public offering (IPO).

The steel plant has already postponed the IPO, which was earlier proposed to be opened on July 6, for three weeks in the light of protests by the VSP workers and officers unions. Meanwhile, the workers union had issued a notice for a two-day strike on June 27 and 28 in protest against the government's decision to off-load 10 per cent of its stake in the steel plant.