“He was saving money to build our family home. Now, who will do it?” asked a distraught young man, seated outside the postmortem centre of the government medical college hospital in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district.
His eyes red and swollen, 32-year-old Santosh Kumar was still in shock a day after his 45-year-old brother, Ritesh Kumar, died in an explosion at the power plant in neighbouring Sakti district on Tuesday.
A total of 20 people died and 16 were injured after superheated steam generated from a boiler tube blast rained on them at Vedanta’s Singhitarai power plant. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the incident, said Sakti Collector Amrit Vikas Topno, adding that the best-possible treatment will be provided to those injured. The bodies were brought to Raigarh for postmortem.
From Sonbarsa in Bihar’s Bhagalpur, Ritesh Kumar was a school dropout who started working as welder from the age of 18. He has worked in five states — Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and over the last three months, in Chhattisgarh.
An hour after the explosion at the factory, his brother Santosh, received a phone call saying that Ritesh was injured in an accident. He set out on an overnight journey with Ritesh’s wife, Suruchi, travelling 700 km to reach Raigarh early in the morning. It was tragic news that awaited them.
“His wife collapsed. We picked her up and sent her back. I am waiting to arrange the transportation of his body back home,” Santosh said.
Ritesh leaves behind his wife, two college-going daughters and a school-going son. “Last year, he built the foundation of our family home and was saving money for further construction. If the government funds the children’s education, we will be grateful,” Santosh said.
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Outside the postmortem area of Raigarh’s district hospital, another man was mourning his brother’s death. Rafiq (39) said 40-year-old Shaikh Saifuddin, his brother, was a painter from Haldia in West Bengal, who had been living in Chhattisgarh for the last seven to eight months in an effort to save money to support his children.
According to Rafiq, Saifuddin chose to work in Chhattisgarh because he was getting paid around Rs 24,000 a month there, while back in West Bengal, he was earning half that.
“He was set to leave for Bengal to vote in the upcoming election,” Rafiq said.
Saifuddin’s death has come as a second blow to the family in the last three years. Rafiq said, “My brother’s wife died two years ago from an illness. He has an 18-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old son.”
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Before Saifuddin died, his brother said, he had spoken to his son about the latter’s appendix surgery. “He had sent money for it. My brother’s life will not come back, but I want the government to fund his children’s education and help them get a job,” Rafiq said.
Another life lost in Tuesday’s blast was that of 28-year-old Brijesh Kumar. He leaves behind his 22-year-old wife and two sons, aged three and one. A resident of Piparkhand village in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district, Brijesh worked as a carpenter for the last eight years in Rajasthan, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad, before moving to Chhattisgarh.
“He switched to painting beams in the power plant because of better wages. But we had no idea this was such a risky job. He kept it a secret from me. Otherwise, we would have told him not to take up such risky work,” said his father-in-law, Uday Ram (50), who arrived in Raigarh to take his body.
Another relative, Sanjeevan Kumar, said, “An hour before the incident, during lunchtime, he was speaking with his wife on video call and said everything was fine. I saw him in the ICU last night at 9 pm. The next day, when I reached the hospital at 7.30 am, they said he was dead and that his body was sent to the mortuary. They did not inform us when he died.”
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After the blast, 13 people had died on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the toll rose to 20 as seven more succumbed to their injuries. According to officials, five injured people are in critical condition, and 11 others are admitted in hospitals.
In a statement after the blast, Vedanta Limited Chhattisgarh Thermal Power Plant said, “We regret to inform you that an incident has occurred at the Unit 1 boiler of our plant in Singhitarai in the afternoon of 14 April 2026, involving personnel of our business partner, NGSL.”
Subsequently, the company has announced Rs 35 lakh compensation for the families of the deceased, and Rs 15 lakh for the injured.
Ajit Naskar, one of the many workers from West Bengal who were working at the plant, said, “I have been working here for over a month. We were given the task of painting the premises. The incident happened at around 2.30 pm, when we were just starting our work after lunch. I suddenly heard a blast, and there was smoke everywhere.”
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the incident and announced ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai termed the incident “extremely distressing and heart-wrenching”.
“The demise and injury of the workers is profoundly agonising. My deepest condolences are with the bereaved families. I pray to God to grant a place at His divine feet to the departed souls and provide the families with the strength to bear this unbearable sorrow,” he said in a post on X.
“The state government will provide financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the deceased workers and Rs 50,000 to the injured, so that they can receive immediate relief and support… Instructions have been issued to ensure proper and free treatment for all the injured. I pray for their swift recovery,” CM Sai said, adding that a thorough and impartial investigation would be ensured.
