Balco mishap: Chinese staff evacuated, fearing local ire

Chinese nationals are fleeing the industrial township of Korba to escape local wrath after a chimney collapse at a plant run by Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (Balco) claimed 25 lives on Wednesday. The Chinese are employees of Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (Sepco) — a China-based power construction company— which won the contract to build a 1,200-Mw power plant for Vedanta-controlled Balco in Korba. The work for constructing a 275-metre tall chimney was awarded to Indian civil engineers Gannon Dunkerley. In all, 76 Sepco officials and employees have left Korba over Wednesday and Thursday. Sources said they had not left the country, but were camping in Mumbai and Kolkata till the situation returns to normal. About half-a-dozen Chinese nationals working for another company also fled the town, sources said. Sources said the police escorted the Chinese nationals in different groups to Bilaspur railway station and Raipur airport. The first group comprising senior officials was evacuated under cover of darkness on Wednesday night and the last group reached Raipur late yesterday night under heavy security escort. “The district administration did not want the Chinese officials and employees to stay because they would become the target of an angry mob and create a major law and order problem,” a senior police official told Business Standard. Rescue work on the Balco plant has seen the body count rising steadily. Official sources said 34 bodies had been retrieved and it would take another 24 hours to clear the debris and rescue the people trapped inside. Balco’s chief of corporate communications B K Sriwastava confirmed that the Chinese officials and employees had been shifted from Korba because the situation was tense. The move was aimed to avert any untoward incident, he explained, adding that this was a temporary arrangement and they would be back once normalcy was restored.