15 KPCL engineers injured in KPCL gas plant mishap

Two electrical engineers were severely injured while 13 others escaped with minor burn injuries in a “fire mishap” at the yet-to-be-commissioned gas-based power plant of the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) in Yelahanka, Bengaluru, in the early hours of Friday.

According to the Yelahanka New Town police, the incident occurred at 3 am on Friday. While locals reported hearing a loud noise, senior KPCL officials told DH that it was a fire mishap caused by gas leakage.

Right through the morning, ambulances were seen rushing injured engineers to nearby hospitals.

Terming the incident as a freak one, a senior KPCL officer said the incident happened while “testing the gas turbine before its actual commissioning in a few days”.

The official said that a total of 15 engineers including Assistant Executive Engineers (AEEs) and Executive Engineers (EEs) suffered burn injuries.

“While 15 personnel, including engineers, have 10-15% burn injuries, two AEEs are critical with more than 50% burn injuries,” the official added.

Confirming the same, C K Baba, DCP (North-East), said two engineers had severe burn injuries.

Talking about the mishap, an engineer said an “open circuit test and short circuit tests were carried out to keep the turbine rolling at 3,000 rpm”.

“During the process, the turbine tripped due to the activation of fire protection at bearing number 2 of the turbine. Possibly there was an oil leak from the bearing resulting in fire. The flames came out of the chamber,” an engineer explained.

A KPCL official said a ‘Root Cause Analysis’ will be carried out soon to ascertain the actual cause behind the incident.

“Only after we get a report of the analysis, we will be able to comment on the incident. In less than 10 minutes, the fire control system was activated by default and it put out the fire. Otherwise, it would have been a major fire,” the official said.

The plant at Yelahanka initially generated power using diesel, but was later shut due to high levels of pollution following a court order. Subsequently, the KPCL decided to convert the plant into a gas-based power plant and floated a global tender to commission the 370 MW plant for which work was under progress, sources said.

The Yelahanka-Puttenahalli Lake and Bird Conservation Trust is currently fighting a legal battle at the NGT alleging that the KPCL had obtained environmental clearance from the government by suppressing the fact about lakes being declared a bird conservation reserve.