Nine technicians killed, 23 injured in Bokaro steel plant blast

Last month nine technicians were killed and 23 were injured when a pipeline connecting two blast furnaces exploded in the prestigious Russian-aided Bokaro steel plant. A high-powered committee was immediately instituted to investigate the cause of the tragedy. Though the accident received scant attention in the national press initially, it received prominent coverage following a heated parliamentary debate which led to the reconstitution of the probe panel.

According to Steel Secretary S.P. Samadhar and K.C. Khanna, chairman of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) the damage to the plant was not serious. Said Khanna: "Accidents in steel plants in general and in blast furnaces in particular are a common feature. But the loss of lives was painful." Adds Samadhar: "The plant got back into action within three days of the accident. In fact, the production in Bokaro was highest in the month of March."

Though the bosses underplay the enormity of the accident, things are not as they are made out to be. For one, the probe committees appointed were repeatedly changed. The final committee-the third - is headed by S.K. Parmanik, chief metallurgical advisor to Metallurgical and Engineering Consultant (India) Ltd (MECON), a public sector company, MECON, incidentally, has been at loggerheads with the Bokaro plant management and with Hindustan Steel Construction Ltd (HSCL) over the slow-pace of construction at the steel plant.

Strain:Though officials in the ministry deny it, there are those who feel that the earlier probe committees were replaced because it doubted their ability to be objective. In any case, it was the parliamentary debate which prompted the change. At that time, in a great show of concern it was announced that some of the dead were paid compensation in spite of the fact that they were contract labourers.

On the day of the blast, S. Samarpungavan, managing director of the Bokaro steel plant, was transferred. He was shifted to Burnpur, where Indian Iron and Steel Co (ISCO), a SAIL subsidiary, has a steel plant. In his place D.P. Ahuja, who was in charge at Burnpur, was appointed.

For the hapless Samarpungavan, the warning of the Ides of March could have well applied. In any case, he had been under severe strain - both at office and at home - for some time. His wife, a Russian, lost her mother to cancer recently. Because of her illness Samarpungavan was on two months' leave and rejoined duty only a few weeks before the incident.