The toll in the HPCL cooling tower blast and fire, which occurred on August 23, rose to 28 on Monday after a contract worker, A. Srinivasa Rao (39), succumbed to injuries in a private hospital here. Of the 28, one was a HPCL employee and the rest were contract workers.
A cheque for Rs 20 lakhs will be handed over to the Visakhapatnam district collector for handing over to the dependants of the dead worker. Compensation amounting to Rs 5.4 crore has been handed over so far to the district collector.
Currently, 6 contract workers are undergoing treatment here in different private hospitals and six in the National Burns Centre, Mumbai. All the 12 are reported to be stable and improving.