COIMBATORE: A coal bunker at Mettur Thermal Power Plant in Salem collapsed on Thursday evening, burying a group of workers under more than 500 tonnes of debris and coal. After an hour-long operation, five workers were rescued alive, while one was found dead.
Search operation is under way to locate others who may have been trapped inside. The bunker or storage container had 500 tonnes of coal load, sources said. Though these bunkers can handle a coal load of up to 625 tonnes, their load-handling capacity decreases with time and all these structures are nearly 30 years old, sources said.
Superintendent of Police Gautam Goyal told TNIE “Around seven to eight people were caught under the debris. Five of them were rescued alive. One worker P Venkatesh (50) of Mettur was found dead. The search operation is on to rescue others.”
The coal-fired plant comes under the control of Tangedco. It has four units and each unit produces 210 megawatts (MW) of electricity every day. Coal is crushed in the grinding mill on the ground floor and sent to a 52m high bunker through an 18m feeder. Each unit has five bunkers named from A to E.
On Thursday, around 5 pm, when a group of workers were at the grinding mill, the third bunker (D) collapsed allegedly unable to hold the weight after it was loaded with around 500 tonnes of coal. The collapsing bunker damaged the feeder and fell on the grinding mill where the workers were working. Production was stopped immediately.
Police and fire and rescue services teams rushed to the spot. Five workers, M Gowtham (20), A Thiruchendur Murugan (28), C Sreenivasan (44), C Srikanth (24) and P Manoj (27), were rescued and taken to Mettur Government Hospital in ambulances. Manoj was later referred to Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital in Salem.