Visakha Solvents’ explosion was result of negligence by chemists on shift, rules expert panel
The chemists on the floor had failed to manage the appropriate vacuum pressure leading to the accident, says report.
The explosion of a solvent recovery reactor in Visakha Solvents Limited at Parawada on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam on Monday night was due to negligence in rectifying a technical snag on time by the chemists on duty, a five-member inquiry committee reported on Wednesday.
A 44-year old chemist Kandregula Srinivasa Rao was charred to death and another chemist T Malleshwar Rao (34) sustained severe burn injuries while three others escaped with minor injuries in the explosion of the reactor in the chemical plant.
The committee led by a senior engineer from Visakhapatnam Steel Plant J S S Reddy conducted an inquiry into the accident and submitted its preliminary report to Visakhapatnam district collector Vinay Chand.
According to the report, the accident occurred on the first floor of the solvent recovery plant in Reactor No. 102, under the process of distillation of Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO), which was supplied by Hyderabad-based company Pratik industries.
During the distillation, steam was being supplied into the reactor tank. At about 9 pm during shift change, it was observed that the intensity of vacuum in the tank had gone up and Malleswara Rao had cut off the steam supply to reactor and gone to the second floor to check the vacuum pumps.
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When he came down to the first floor, he found smoke coming out from the shaft seal of agitator of reactor 102. He immediately alerted Srinivasa Rao asking him to run out of the block, but by that time, the reactor had exploded, the report said.
While Malleshwar Rao sustained burn injuries on the body, Srinivasa Rao was found dead at the incident spot the next morning.
The committee observed that the chemists on shift had failed to maintain the required vacuum pressure in the reactor. “With the increase in intensity of vacuum the boiling point of the above chemical mixture obviously decreased and it reached the flash point resulting in explosion,” the committee said.
Minister for industries Mekapati Gautam Reddy said the company management had agreed to extend ex gratia of Rs 35 lakh to the family of the deceased chemist Srinivasa Rao, while the state government would release another Rs 15 lakh from the chief minister’s relief fund.
“Similarly, an amount of Rs 20 lakh would be paid to the family of Malleshwar Rao who sustained burn injuries,” he said.
Main opposition Telugu Desam Party on Wednesday demanded that the state government should pay ex gratia of Rs 1 crore to the family of the deceased chemist.
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