Another NTPC blast victim succumbs to injuries; death toll rises to 43, seven remain 'very critical'

Lucknow: The death toll in the boiler explosion at NTPC’s Unchahar power plant in Rae Bareli on 1 November rose to 43 on Friday, with one more injured succumbing at the Safdarjung hospital in Delhi, officials said. Additional General Manager, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Ram Mukherjee, died of burn injuries at the hospital on Friday. NTPC’s Additional General Manager Prabhat Kumar Srivastava breathed his last at a Delhi hospital on Thursday while another AGM Sanjeev Kumar died earlier. All these officials had been airlifted for treatment to New Delhi last week. [caption id=“attachment_4191099” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of injured being taken to a district hospital after the explosion at the NTPC plant. PTI[/caption] Seventeen injured persons, all contractual labourers, are being treated at various medical facilities in the state capital. The condition of eight injured is “very critical”. More than a dozen injured are being treated in various hospitals in Delhi, an official told IANS, adding the condition of seven is said to be critical. A blast in the boiler at unit VI of the Unchahar power plant on 1 November caused huge devastation, killing many people and injuring over a hundred. The plant has since been shut down and a probe is underway to ascertain the reasons behind the explosion. Prima facie, however, the incident seems to have been triggered by the clogging of the furnace pipe due to which the boiler exploded.