A fire broke out at the Obra thermal power plant, a subsidiary of Uttar Pradesh Thermal Power Generation Corporation Limited, leading to the closure of its 200 MW power units on Sunday morning.
The Obra thermal power plant, situated on the border of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, supplies power mostly to UP. Due to the fire, power generation was stopped at Obra and this disrupted power supply in some parts of the State.
Official sources said here that the fire started from the switch gear in the cable yard around 5 in the morning and the fire spread to nearby areas within an hour.
About 12 fire-tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the flames. Due to the fire, unit numbers 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 of the power plant generating around 200 megawatt (MW) electricity were shut down.
Senior officials of the UP Thermal Power Generation Corporation Limited along with district authorities rushed to the spot. Sonebhadra’s District Magistrate Amit Kumar Singh said the units had been shut down and the employees had been evacuated. He said no one was injured in the fire.
Official sources said the loss due to the fire could be in several crore of rupees. They also said that the losses would have been much higher had the fire not been brought under control immediately and the entire Obra thermal power plant, which generates 800 MW of power, would have to be shut down leading to major power crisis in the State.
