Kerala   

KSEB union alleges conspiracy

PATHANAMTHITTA: Kerala Vaidyuti Mazdoor Sanghom (BMS) president M.K. Kamalan alleged here on Saturday that there was a conspiracy between certain quarters attached to the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and contractors behind the move to operate Generator-VI of the Moozhiyar Power House without properly ensuring foolproof safety measures.

In a statement, Mr. Kamalan alleged that reliable KSEB quarters had confirmed the move to operate Generator-VI, in spite of the fact that the buckets attached to its runners were found damaged. Any move to operate the generator without replacing the partially damaged parts would cause hazards similar to the one that claimed three lives on May 16, he said.

The BMS leader alleged that there was reason to suspect a plot to “protect the interests” of the contractor, as only a month was left for the expiry of guarantee period of the machine.

Mr. Kamalan said experts suspect that the explosion in Generator IV, killing three persons and injuring many others on May 16, might have been due to the damaged buckets in the runner of the machine. He alleged that the explosion in the renovated Generator-IV occurred within the warranty period. Experts were of the view that lack of expertise and use of inferior quality spare parts by the local sub-contractor could have been the cause for explosion.

He has called for a thorough inspection of the generators and accessories before operating them even on a trial basis.

“According to experts, each runner attached to the generators at Moozhiyar had 23 buckets before their renovation work and the number of buckets had been fixed on the basis of the velocity of water flowing through the penstock pipes. But, the logic of reducing the number of buckets to 21 as part of renovation was beyond comprehension, as the penstock pipes remained the same without any alteration.”

Mr. Kamalan alleged that the KSEB authorities had failed to ensure the quality of work held as part of renovation, modernisation and upgrading (RMU) of the 300-MW power station aimed at enhancing the generation capacity by 35 MW.

Though the RMU work was awarded to an Austrian company at an estimated cost of Rs.98 crore, the work was sublet to a local company, Fitwell, owned by C.K. Chacko of Thiruvalla later, he said. Moreover, there was no proper system to ensure the quality of work, Mr Kamalan alleged. The BMS leader called for a detailed probe by a competent agency outside Kerala into all aspects of the RMU.

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