Nine workers were killed and at least 14 injured in a gas pipeline explosion at Steel Authority of India Limited’s (SAIL) Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, on Tuesday night, a company official said on Wednesday, October 10.
The official said that the explosion followed a fire in the gas pipeline connecting the coke oven battery complex during scheduled maintenance work when about 24 workers were on the job.
“At least nine people were burnt to death and 14 serious injured and most of them are said to be in a serious condition,” a police official said.
The Indian government has appointed a high-powered team headed by junior steel minister, Vishnu Deo Singh to lead investigations into the blast.
SAIL completed a $2.29 billion expansion and modernization project for BSP in June this year, which increased its capacity from 4 million mt per year to 7 million mt per year and which also included modernization of its blast furnaces and coke oven batteries.
This was the second incident at BSP after six people were killed in 2014 due to a gas leak at the plant.