HYDERABAD: The CBI officials, who are investigating the cause of the fire that destroyed four units of the underground hydel power station and killed nine employees at Srisialam 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Thursday, are struggling to retrieve data on the computer systems since the software used was written in Fortran, an outdated programming language.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 as 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 be easy for us to understand 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 became 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.
Need to probe Srisailam fire from many angles: CID
The theory that power-overload 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. The CID team has questioned a number of staff of the power station to know if the human error led to the mishap. They wonder why should batteries be fixed late in the night though there is a theory going around that since the hydel station has state-of-the-art machinery, it does not matter when the batteries are fixed.
“This is a highly sophisticated plant. To know what went wrong, we have to examine the incident from various angles,” the CID offier said and pointed out that it is difficult to hazard a guess when they would be able to complete the probe. “I cannot say when as a lot of work is yet to be done,” the officer added.
Loss runs into crores of rupees TS Genco has suffered loss of crores of rupees due to the fire accident at the Srisailam project even as officials are yet to estimate the actual financial loss. The cost of Srisailam left bank hydro electric project in 2003 was 78,093 Yens (`2,500 crore to `3,000 crore at that time from which depreciation has to be deducted). According to Genco officials, the first and second units which were located at the entry point of the underground hydel plant could be restored in 15 days.
The third and fifth units could be revived in next one and a half months to two months. The sixth unit could be revived within six months. But, the fourth unit has been damaged completely and the officials could not say how long it would take to revive it.