Statesman News Service reported that a 2 member high level team comprising of Mr Himanshu Sekhar Mohanty deputy director of factories & boilers and Mr Kamalendu Mohapatra assistant director of factories & boilers visited the Visa steel plant at Kalinga Nagar in Orissa to investigate the technical snags that caused the explosion leaving 24 persons injured.

The report cites Mr Mohanty as saying that “I inspected the plant and detected a problem in the blast furnace of the plant. Later, I gave the steel plant authorities a written direction, as per Section 40 of the Indian Factory Act to restart the blast furnace until it got a go ahead certificate from a competent authority.”

Mr Mohanty said that the explosion occurred when the furnace was being shut down for maintenance. He said “There are certain procedures to shut down a furnace for conducting maintenance, which were not properly implemented. The mishap occurred when the water bound clay layer slipped from the tube connected to the coke oven and blast furnace. A small pocket of combustible mixture formed in the blast furnace due to excess water and carbon monoxide.”

As per report, in the detailed report submitted by the team to the government, it is said that though the company authorities adopted the usual procedure, they did not implement it properly.

Visa Steel had entrusted the repairing work with Erects India and have now agreed to get the furnace examined through an expert. Mr Jagat Parija VP corporate of Visa Steel said “We would abide by the rules and if required, we will definitely go for another professional for the maintenance of the blast furnace. We will take the support of a consultancy that pioneered in globally in blast furnace maintenance.”