Video shows chaos after NTPC plant explosion; toll hits 32

The death toll in the National Thermal Power Corporation's Unchahar plant mishap has risen to 32 and the panel set up to look into the cause of the accident will come out with its report in a month, the power producer's CMD Gurdeep Singh said on Friday.

"Death toll 32 so far... Panel headed by Executive Director S K Roy looking into the cause of the accident, report in a month," said Singh during an interaction with reporters in New Delhi.

Terming the boiler plant blast as 'the rarest kind of incident', the NTPC chairman and managing director said people maintaining the unit were the most experienced.

He added that it will take nearly 3-6 months to put the unit back on track.

Earlier, in a statement, the NTPC had said that at unit number six of its Unchahar plant, there was a sudden abnormal sound at 20-meter elevation around 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon.

There was an opening in corner number two from which gas and steam 'escaped' affecting the people working around the area, the central public sector undertaking said.

It added that around 80 people were rushed to the NTPC Hospital, most of whom were discharged after first-aid.

The 1,550-MW plant supplies electricity to nine states, according to officials, and employs around 870 people.