Three more succumbed to burns on Saturday, taking the toll in the oxygen house explosion at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to 15.
RINL officials said Mr P. Narayana Rao, senior chargeman (energy management department) and Mr M.B. Muralidhar Raju, foreman (SMS construction), succumbed to the burns in a Mumbai hospital in the early hours of Saturday. Assistant General Manager (Utility), Mr L. Srinivasa Rao, who was admitted to a corporate hospital here, died this morning. With his death, the number of VSP employees who lost their lives increased to nine. The six others were contract workers.
General Manager (Projects), Mr D.S. Kalsi and AGM (SMS), Mr M.B.R.S. Sarma and Mr R. Bhattacharya of M.N. Dastur & Co, consultant for RINL's expansion project, are now in critical condition.
Two senior civil judges M. Rama Devi and Surya Rao inspected the blast site and interacted with senior officials and employees of the steel plant.