Fire breaks out at Mettur thermal power plant

SALEM: The extent of damage caused by a major fire that broke out in the materials godown at the Thermal Power Plant in Mettur on Friday night is yet to be calculated.The loss might run into a few crores of rupees, said a source at the Thermal Plant. However the incident had not affected the routine operations of the plant as the fire occurred only in a godown where materials for expansion project were stocked.A massive expansion work on an outlay of Rs 3000 crore over an area of 100 acres was under way at the 600 MW plant. The private contractor, who was carrying out the project, had stocked imported equipments like boilers, heat transfer systems and control instruments at the godown, where the fire broke out. The Thermal Plant’s own fire brigade were assisted by personnel from the Mettur Fire Station in putting out the flames. An electrical leak caused the fire sources said and added that the fire fighting operation lasted for about an hour.Officials of the Thermal Power Plant could not be contacted and the public relations department also did not issue any statement.  Revenue Divisional Officer Soorya Prakash, who made an assessment of the situation, said the loss was being estimatedAs of now there was no danger to the production assets and the operations would continue as usual at the plant, said Soorya Prakash.