Ladle explosion is unheard of in steel industry

Visakhapatnam: Much has been debated over the possible reasons for the fatal accident at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) that immolated eight people beyond recognition and left others injured.

Even for those employed at Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), VSP’s corporate entity, for years, figuring out the reason behind the ladle explosion proved challenging.

After visiting the incident site, Deputy Chief Minister K Pawan Kalyan expressed immense grief that a ladle blast was unheard of in the steel industry for the past 35 years. A three-member committee has been constituted to impartially decode this mystery. Following lapses in unit maintenance and safety protocols, industrial accidents continue to recur, claiming workers’ lives. Even in the past, industrial mishaps haunted pharmaceutical companies, chemical factories, industries located at Special Economic Zone and Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, claiming lives and they continue to do so now. Flagging that a similar incident occurred a day before the ladle explosion at VSP, a section of employees brought it to the Deputy Chief Minister’s notice when he visited the incident site.

The next day, a major explosion occurred at SMS-1, killing eight employees on duty—three regular workers, four contract workers and one officer—on the spot and severely injuring six more. Centre of Indian Trade Unions denied that the fatal incident could be termed a ‘fire accident’. They opined that the accident occurred due to gross violation of the standard operating procedure (SOP). “While moving hot liquid molten steel from SMS-I in the ladle via crane to the continuous caster, the molten steel must be mixed with ferroalloy, manganese, silicon and allowed to homogenise and degasify through the ladle furnace (LF) and RH before the liquid is passed to the continuous caster department,” reasoned CITU president Sudip Dutta and general secretary E Kareem.

Any evasion of this homogenisation and degasification of the hot steel mix may lead to the possibility of an explosion of the hot metal-mix on the ladle, resulting in a huge spillage like the one it occurred at VSP on June 8, they explained.

Trade union leaders opined that the RINL management focuses more on production rather than adhering to SOPs and machinery maintenance protocols. As the employee strength at RINL gradually thins, stress mounts on the existing skeletal staff for production.

Emphasising the importance of following quality standards at the workplace, employees expressed concern that concrete measures must be in place to prevent such incidents from recurring in future.