Two workers died after inhaling poisonous gas during maintenance work at the IISCO steel plant of state-run SAIL in West Bengal's Burnpur on Wednesday, officials said.
The incident happened when Baban Sarkar and Suman Biswas, both contractual workers, were cleaning the sulphur tank of battery number 11 around 3 pm, they said.
Baban went into the tank first and when he did not come out, Suman went inside to find out what happened. When both of them did not come out, two other workers went in to find out that the tank was filled with poisonous gas, local sources said.
Baban and Suman, both locals, were brought out after plant workers went in wearing protective gear, they said.
When taken to the IISCO hospital, they were declared dead.
The plant was not operational when the incident happened, a SAIL official said.
An inquiry committee was constituted for a detailed investigation, he said.
Following the incident, protests were held by the INTUC.
INTUC leader Harjit Singh said that the management has to provide adequate compensation to the families of those killed. PTI CORR NAM SOM SOM
(Published 03 June 2021, 00:15 IST)
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