12 hours on, nine employees still trapped inside Telangana's Srisailam power plant

The condition and location of nine employees trapped inside the Srisailam left bank hydroelectric powerhouse, after a fire broke out at about 10:30 pm on Thursday, is still unknown.

A major fire broke out at about 10:30 on Thursday night inside the underground powerhouse on Telangana side of the multipurpose project.

15 employees of the Telangana state power generation corporation and two employees of a private firm were inside the plant at the time of the incident. While eight employees managed to escape, nine were trapped inside. The injured were admitted to the nearby TSGENCO hospital and are out of danger.

Those trapped inside include a deputy engineer and several assistant engineers. This is the first such major incident at the power plant.

Attempts made by the disaster response teams were unsuccessful due to the heavy smoke. Help of the expert teams from the Singareni Collieries is also sought.

A short circuit in the electricity control panel is said to have caused the fire which produced thick clouds of smoke that swamped the huge facility.

Telangana power minister Jagadeesh Reddy, TSGenco CMD Prabhakar Rao along with senior TSGENCO, police etc., officials rushed to the spot to monitor the rescue efforts.

The Srisailam project on River Krishna is jointly managed by the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments and is a major source of irrigation water and electricity for the two Telugu states.

With heavy inflows from Karnataka, the reservoir is at its full capacity at 884 feet and water is being released through the spillway by opening 10 crest gates. Power production was on at both the right and left bank units.

Telangana Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao and union Minister of State for home affairs Kishan Reddy expressed shock over the accident at Srisailam and have prayed for the safety of those trapped inside the plant.