The Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has said the Bhushan Steel Limited (BSL) set up a 256 MW power plant on its premises without its permission. During an inspection on Monday, an OSPCB team found BSL was running the plant "clandestinely".
The pollution watchdog said the board had on May 6 rejected BSL's application to establish the power plant near blast furnace-II, where the explosion took place. "We found BSL was producing power by running one of the three boilers of the power plant. The power plant was set up to support blast furnace-II. It had installed two more boilers, but was not running them," a senior scientist of OSPCB said.
"We will not only serve closure notice to the power plant, but will also seal its cold rolling mill. The blast furnace-II was meant for expansion of integrated steel plant from 3.1 mtpa to 5.6 mtpa. This will also have to be stopped," another official said.
In September, the board had served closure notice to the 300 MW Bhushan Energy Limited (BEL) for violating air and water pollution control norms. "BEL and BSL have been served closure notices on six occasions in the last two years," another official of the board said.
A workman was burnt to death in an explosion during commissioning of a slag granulation plant (SGP) in blast furnace-II of the factory around 9.30 am on Wednesday. Earlier, the board had revealed that although BSL had obtained permission for installing blast furnace-II, it never got consent for starting operation, which is mandatory.
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