The death toll in the explosion in a boiler in the Unchahar plant of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, has risen to 26, Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar told reporters in Lucknow on Thursday.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has taken a break from his ongoing ‘Navsarjan Yatra’ in poll-bound Gujarat and is visiting Raebareli to meet the families of the victims of the explosion.
Raebareli is the parliamentary constitutency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who has expressed shock over the “terrible tragedy”.
While Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is abroad, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma will be visiting Raebareli on Thursday.
Compensation
The NTPC has initiated a probe into the blast. On Wednesday, the Chief Minister announced ₹ 2 lakh compensation for the families of those killed and ₹ 50,000 for the grievously injured.
In a statement, the NTPC has said that at unit number six, there was a sudden abnormal sound at 20-meter elevation around 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon.
There was an opening in corner number two from which gases and steam “escaped” affecting the people working around the area, it said.
Around 80 people were rushed to the NTPC Hospital and most of them were discharged after first-aid.
The 1,550-MW plant supplies electricity to nine States, according to officials, and employs around 870 people.
PM ‘deeply pained’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that he was “deeply pained” by the accident.
Union Power Minister R K Singh, through social media posts, expressed deep anguish over the loss of lives. He said he had directed NTPC Chairman and Managing Director Gurdeep Singh to rush to the plant.
