Major fire breaks out at Khaperkheda TPS; power generation of 840 MW to be affected

 

 

 

A major fire broke out at Khaperkheda Thermal Power Station (TPS) after the conveyor belt at the coal handling plant caught fire on Wednesday afternoon. As the conveyor belt was damaged in the fire, four power generation units with generation capacity of 210 MW were to be closed by MahaGenco one by one till late night. An official of MahaGenco informed ‘The Hitavada’ that the fire broke out at 3.25 pm at the conveyor belt of a coal handling plant that supplied power to four 210 MW capacity power generation units. Due to the massive fire, the conveyor belt fell down on the ground and there was huge smoke. The employees fled for the shelter and officials alerted the Fire Department. Fire tenders from Koradi Thermal Power Station (KTPS) and other places rushed to the spot. The firefighters managed to douse the flames within an hour.

 

A senior official of MahaGenco said that inspection of the conveyor belt was being carried out to ascertain damage to the coal handling plant. After the survey, the officials will start repair work. Every power generation unit has a separate coal bunker for storage of coal. The units will be closed after the bunkers run out of coal, he said. The 500 MW capacity unit will operate smoothly as it has a special coal handling plant which was not affected by the fire. Similarly, the MahaGenco officials are trying hard to ascertain the cause of the fire. Sources claimed that short-circuit could be a reason behind the massive fire.