NEW DELHI, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A probe into the boiler explosion at a government-run coal-fired power plant in India's Uttar Pradesh state has revealed that engineers were aware of a problem in the boiler unit and were working to fix it, but still they didn't shut it down.
The death toll in blast has, meanwhile, risen to 30. "With the recovery of more charred bodies and a few critically injured succumbing to their injuries in hospitals, the death toll now stands at 30," a top official said Friday.
Over 100 injured people are undergoing treatment at various hospitals in the state. "Two of them who sustained 70 percent burns in the accident have been shifted to Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital for specialised treatment," he added.
The blast occurred at the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plant at Unchahar in the state's Raebareli district, some 110 km from Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow, Wednesday evening when nearly 200 workers were on duty.
The plant is almost 30 years old but the boiler pipe burst took place in the 500 MW power generating unit that started operating in March this year. And the boiler that had exploded was actually on a trial run.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that NTPC engineers clearly knew the problem in the power-generating unit and were working to fix it.
"We were aware of an ongoing problem and that's why the generation capacity of the plant was reduced on that day. Extremely high pressure because of ash within the boiler furnace caused it to leak, producing a disaster," R.S. Rathee, NTPC's regional executive director, told media.
When asked why the plant -- which supplies electricity to nine states and employs around 870 people -- wasn't shut down that could have averted the accident, he said: "We only shut down a plant or a unit when we feel we can't repair it during ongoing operations."
Indian Power Minister R.K. Singh has announced a compensation of 2 million rupees (30,000 U.S. dollars) to the families of the deceased and 1 million rupees for the seriously injured, apart from 3,000 U.S. dollars compensation already announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India's main opposition Congress party's second-in-command Rahul Gandhi, who visited the blast site and met the families of the victims, has demanded better compensation as well as a government job for the kin of those killed. He has also asked for punishment for the guilty.
