HYDERABAD: The CID officials, who are investigating the cause of the fire that destroyed four units of the underground hydel power station and killed nine employees at Srisailam last Thursday, are struggling to retrieve data on the computer systems since the software used was written in Fortran, an outdated programming language.
“It is becoming difficult for us to use the software. Nevertheless we are trying to retrieve the data with the help of experts, which might hold the key to what led to the fire,” one official, who is associated with the investigation into the fire, said. The officials are trying to get to the bottom of what caused the fire and how it spread quickly, and who should be held responsible for it.
“Until we get all technical data and also the information about the situation prior to the time of the fire, it may not become easy for us to know if it is a systemic failure or a human error,” the officer said.
The CID officials, to begin with, are trying to find out how the fire had started in the control panels, who were there at that time and how the entire hydel station had become a gas chamber for the staff who were trapped inside.
Though it has been five days since the mishap took place, the CID team is finding it difficult to reach the fourth level which was the most affected part of the station, where the floor, though made of concrete, had lifted up under the intensity of heat.
“It is tricky and risky even to walk on the floor. But that is where the control panels are located. We should know to what extent they had suffered the damage and whether we could salvage anything worthwhile for us to investigate,” the officer added.
When the fire broke out, the seven employees who perished in it, chose to stay there to put out the flames but could not succeed as the flames remained untamable, spreading quickly like conflagration, filling the entire station with thick toxic fumes, suffocating them to death. According to sources, the fire started when batteries meant for supplying 220 KV DC power were being fixed.
The authorities are trying to find out if a short circuit that took place led to the fire or if the load had suddenly increased because of malfunction of a gadget.
For obtaining technical details, the CID officials are holding talks with independent experts to find out the actual processes involved in generation of the hydel power and what had gone wrong and where.
The theory that poweroverload led to the fire, on the face of it, appeared plausible, as at that time all the six units were in operation, generating hydel power at full capacity of 900 MW.
TS GENCO LOSS RUNS INTO CRORES
The loss to the TS Genco runs into crores of rupees, due to the fire accident in Srisailam project. Though the officials are yet to estimate the actual financial loss, the preliminary estimates put the loss in crores.
According to information available, the cost of Srisailam left bank hydro electric project was 78,093 Yens in 2003, which works to around Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 3,000 crore at that time from which depreciation has to be deducted.
The Genco officials briefed the top officials on Tuesday on the status of the six units. According to them, the first and second units could be restored in 15 days time