2 workers dead, 5 severely injured in mishap at Mettur thermal power plant
A bunker top, which transports coal through a conveyor belt for grinding at an elevation of around 100 feet before power generation, entirely collapsed on the workers, sources said
The thermal power plant in Mettur where the mishap happened
COIMBATORE: Two workers died and five others were grievously injured as a huge mound of coal collapsed on them at the thermal power plant in Mettur on Thursday.
A bunker top, which transports coal through a conveyor belt for grinding at an elevation of around 100 feet before power generation, entirely collapsed on the workers, sources said. The incident happened in the third unit of an ‘old’ thermal power plant that generates 840 MW of power.
In the mishap, seven workers were buried in the huge dump of coal weighing around 350 tonnes. Immediately, the rescue personnel from the thermal power plant got into action and pulled out five workers, namely Murugan, 25; Gowtham, 25; Sri Kanth, 26; Srinivasan, 42; and Manoj Kumar, 27, with severe injuries. They were rushed to Mettur Government Hospital for treatment.
The body of a worker, Venkatesh, 42 from the Cauvery Cross area was scooped out with machinery and sent for a post-mortem at Mettur Government Hospital, while a search was on for one more worker from the coal dump.