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KOLKATA, May 20

THREE employees of Rourkela Steel Plant suffered serious burn injuries when, early on Tuesday, hot metal and slur splashed out of the convertor at the SMS (steel melting shop) II.

A high-level enquiry committee comprising three senior non-RSP executives of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has been constituted to investigate the incident.

The injured executives are Mr P.K. Mohanty, Assistant General Manager, Mr S.P. Swain, Manager and Mr P.K. Hota, senior operator. The three were immediately rushed to an in-house hospital of RSP, which is equipped to handle such patients.

It was learnt that both Mr Mohanty and Mr Swain suffered burns to the extent of 90 per cent. Their condition is reported to be ``serious''. Mr Hota suffered 30 per cent burn injuries.

According to the official spokesperson of RSP, the accident occurred during a routine exercise. ``It is nothing unusual. Hot metal from the furnace was being poured into the convertor, which is a routine activity. Somehow, the hot metal along with some slur splashed out of the convertor'', the spokesperson said.

He further said that an initial investigation had already been conducted by RSP.

The high-level investigative committee comprises Mr U.P. Singh, Executive Director (Operations) of SAIL, Mr S. Kumar, Executive Director of RDCIS (Research & Development Centre for Iron & Steel) and Mr V.K. Jain, Deputy General Manager of SAIL Safety Organisation.

``The members of the enquiry committee will reach Rourkela either this night or tomorrow morning and will initiate their investigation immediately'', the RSP spokesperson said.

It may be noted that in November 2002 another serious mishap occurred at the same SMS-II of RSP, when the `mixture' fell out of the `housing' . Though no one was injured then, RSP suffered a financial loss of about Rs 2 crore because of the accident.

RSP registered a cash profit of Rs 30 crore in the last quarter of 2002-03 after seven years. It also registered record production levels in the last fiscal. Though the plant was set up with an initial capacity of less than one million tonne, it was subsequently increased to 1.4 million tonne. In 2002-03, its production was 1.671 million tonnes of saleable steel.

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