Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Roorkee have been drawn into a controversy over its civil engineering experts allegedly drawing inference — much before completion of any scientific studies — that “lightning” was the cause of Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (BALCO) power plant’s chimney collapse which had claimed 41 lives on September 23.

While a judicial inquiry has already been ordered into the circumstances that led to the chimney crash and police investigations are in progress, IIT Delhi Professor Dr S N Sinha’s three-page report claims that the chimney fell due to lightning. Earlier, IIT Roorkee Professor Jagdish Prasad had also come to a similar conclusion at Korba. While Prof Prasad visited the accident site as a consultant for BALCO, Prof Sinha was a consultant for M/s Gannon Dunkerly & Company Limited, which was constructing the two chimneys for BALCO’s 1,200 MW power plant. BALCO had given a contract for the construction of power plant to Chinese firm SEPCO Power Construction Corp, which in turn sub-contracted the work of chimney construction

to GDCL.

“Earlier, we had sent a notice to IIT Roorkee, asking it to explain the scientific aspects on which its expert had reached such a conclusion. We have now received a reply from IIT Roorkee claiming that lightning could be one of the reasons for the chimney collapse and there may be other reasons as well,” Korba SP Ratanlal Dangi said.

“IIT Delhi expert Dr S N Sinha’s report has also surfaced, drawing inference, that too on the basis of information supplied by his client, that the chimney collapsed due to lightning,” he said. “We are issuing notices to BALCO and GDCL to produce the reports prepared by their respective consultants. Notice will also be issued to IIT Delhi, asking it to explain when and where they collected the samples and to explain the basis on which its expert drew such an inference.”

... contd.