Transformer explosion: Jaipur discom to take help of NIT to determine cause

A technical study would be conducted to determine the reasons behind explosion of a transformer near Jaipur on Tuesday in which 14 people were killed, officials said Wednesday.

The victims of the explosion at Khatauli village in Shahpur area Tuesday include a pregnant woman and her stillborn child.

Terming it “a rarest of rare case”, Jaipur discom managing director RG Gupta said they would take help of electrical engineering department of National Institute of Technology (NIT) Jaipur for the study that will be separate from the inquiry ordered by the state government.

“It’s a rarest of the rare case. There was no overload. Lakhs of transformers have been installed in the state, and I have not come across any such case of explosion in the past,” Gupta told HT.

“To get to the bottom of this case, we will take help of experts including the head of department of the electrical `ngineering department of NIT. This inquiry will be separate from the inquiry being conducted by the divisional commissioner,” he said.

On Tuesday, state power minister Pushpendra Singh had ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Gupta denied the reports that villagers had complained of oil leakage from the transformer. “That is factually incorrect. A meter was replaced six days ago, but apart from that no other complaint was received,” he said.

On the allegation that the discom engineer concerned had been charge-sheeted by the government but not removed from active duty, he said that a charge-sheet in an old case does not mean that the engineer is immediately removed from duty.

Meanwhile, the Rajasthan electricity technical employees association said that failure of exposure vent valve and Buchholz relay (a safety device) could have caused the explosion. When the relay doesn’t work properly, the oil in the transformer gets heated and this could cause a blast if the vent valve fails to open.

The discom officials while refusing to speculate on the reasons have said that the purpose of study was to get to the bottom of the cause and ensure that such events are not repeated in the future.

The transformer was of 3 phase and 25KVA and had load of about 15 HP.