High heat in the Srisailam Left Bank underground hydel station of the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TS-Genco), even two days after the fire is put off completely, has been hampering even the primary assessment of the extent of damage.
A team of Directors of the power utility camping at Eegalapenta in Nagarkurnool district, the nearest location to the power station, have made a vain bid to go beyond certain extent in the underground generation station. The Genco team has come to a primary conclusion that the first two units of the 6x150 megawatt hydel station, which are located towards the entrance side of the tunnel, are in good condition.
When contacted, Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Genco D. Prabhakar Rao told The Hindu that efforts would be made to resume power generation over the next couple of weeks in the first two units since they are found to be in good condition. “We may come to some understanding about the extent of damage only after going further inside the power plant. We can also assess the primary cause for the accident only after visiting the plant completely. We will make one more attempt to go further inside on Monday,” the CMD said.
Mr. Rao, who reached the Left Bank hydel station around 3 a.m. on Friday along with Minister for Energy G. Jagadish Reddy, camped there till Saturday night overseeing the rescue and fire fighting operations. “Everyone was in panic when we reached there. Smoke that engulfed the tunnel and lack of oxygen killed the seven brave engineers and two employees of a private company although we wished to see them alive till their bodies were brought out by CISF and NDRF teams,” he explained.
Stating that they were yet to arrive at a conclusion as what led to the mishap in the state-of-the art hydel generation plant the Genco CMD said all the six units, which were engaged in power generation at the time of the accident did not trip and they had to be isolated from outside by disconnecting the power supply. “Fire and smoke on one side and darkness due to disconnected power supply on the other side made exit from the escape tunnel difficult for the people stuck inside. Four of them had tried their best to reach the escape tunnel but inhalation of smoke made them unconscious two minutes before they could reach the point of exit,” the CMD stated.
Meanwhile, the Genco has constituted a four-member senior engineers committee to ascertain the cause of the accident and the circumstance on the night of August 20. The government has also directed the Genco CMD to submit a detailed report along with recommendation on the measures to be taken to prevent such incidents in future.
