Ramgarh, 22 August (H.S.): A powerful blast occurred late Friday night at the Cement and Ispat Power Plant in Hehal under the Barkakana police outpost area of Ramgarh district in Jharkhand, killing three engineers and critically injuring another.

The blast triggered panic across the plant premises. Barkakana police station in-charge Umashankar Verma reached the site soon after the incident, following which rescue and relief operations were launched.

According to preliminary information, the power plant’s system was affected by extremely high temperatures, resulting in the failure of the protection system. The turbine subsequently oversped, triggering the powerful blast.

Police said the three engineers who died in the incident were Vineet Mahto, a resident of Jageshwar Vihar in Bokaro; Sanjeev Kesari of Dhanbad; and Abhishek Pandey of Nagar Untari in Garhwa. All three reportedly died at the site.

Tarun Ravani, a resident of Hazaribagh district, sustained serious injuries in the incident and is undergoing treatment.

Following the accident, Amit Kumar, an employee at the plant, raised questions over the management’s functioning and alleged that the control room had already been indicating abnormally high temperatures before the blast. He claimed that the air-conditioning system in the control room was not functioning, making it difficult for employees to work there.

Kumar further alleged that employees had repeatedly informed the management about the situation, but no effective action was taken and the cooling system was not repaired.

Meanwhile, residents and others angered by the incident blocked the Ramgarh-Patratu road on Saturday, demanding accountability and compensation. Police and plant management are holding discussions with the agitated people over compensation.

Authorities are expected to investigate the circumstances leading to the blast, including the alleged overheating, failure of the protection system and turbine malfunction.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar