Jajpur: A trade union has demanded an inquiry into the explosion in the blast furnace of state-owned Nilachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) at Kalinganagar in Jajpur district that has crippled its operations. Normalcy is yet to be restored at the plant even after two weeks, a report said Sunday.
Kalinganagar Sramik Sangha has reportedly written to the Prime Minister, the Union Commerce Minister and Union Commerce Secretary demanding a technical audit to check whether there were any irregularities that resulted in the blast furnace explosion.
The trade union has also forwarded copies of the memorandum to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), the State Chief Secretary, the Steel and Mines Secretary, the Industry Secretary and the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of NINL’s stakeholder Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation Ltd (MMTC).
Meanwhile, uncertainty continues to plague the plant and it is yet to become operational even after two weeks of the explosion that ripped through its blast furnace at 3.45 am, October 7.
This has happened as the authorities are soft-pedalling the issue and have not taken any urgent measures to repair and restore work in the blast furnace. The blast furnace is slowly cooling down which might result in a major loss for the state government.
Sirish Mohapatra, the general manager of the plant, tried to cover up the incident by stating thart the blast was a minor issue. He said the blast furnace has been closed down to carry out regular repairs.
The incident occurred when the blow pipe of the Tuyere No-15 in the blast furnace exploded due to water seepage. A tuyere is a nozzle or pipe through which air is blown into the blast furnace. About 50 labourers working at the site had a providential escape from the blast.
The blast resulted in a fire in the mudgun control room after molten iron gushed out from the tuyere and gutted cables and hydraulic lines worth over Rs 20 lakh.
The incident comes six months after the plant authorities spent over Rs 80 crore on blast furnace repair in April. This has raised questions on the quality of repair undertaken in the old blast furnace. It was decided at a board meeting to assign the repairing works to an expert company on turnkey basis and quotations were also invited.
However, the repairing work was divided and handed over to various companies instead of on turnkey basis. The company had appointed some Russian experts to manage the blast furnace for a period of 10 years. However, the Russian experts have withdrawn from the plant after their contract period ended two months back.
The plant at Kalinganagar is a joint venture between MMTC and the Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (IPICOL) and the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).
The NINL plant was established in 1996 and plant authorities had aimed to develop it into an integrated steel project by 2002.
But the goal never saw the light of the day and the plant now produces only pig iron, coke, billet, wires and aluminium sulphate. The plant underwent a complete makeover in April when repair work was undertaken in the blast furnace. It resumed production May 1.
The company even created a record by manufacturing 74,960 tonnes of hot metal and 69,780 tonnes of pig iron in June. This has raised high hopes among industry observers.
When contacted, Sashi Sekhar Mohanty, NINL Managing Director, refused to comment on the issue and asked to enquire about it from departmental officers concerned. Attempts to contact DGM Goutam Rath, GM Sirish Mohapatra for their comments proved futile.
