One civil worker was killed and two other fellow workers got injured in Visakhapatnam's Ship Building Centre's Eastern Naval Command on 8 March 2014 (Saturday). This is the third such naval accident within a fortnight. The injured have been hosptilised.
The deceased is identified as 24-year-old Amar, who was killed on the spot. The seriously injured Amzad Khan and Vishnu are receiving treatment in a Visakhapatnam/Vizag hospital, said Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) chief Avinash Chander, PTI reported.
The worker was killed when the lid of the hydraulic tank of the Arihant class submarine flew off and fell on the workers. The pressure of the hydraulic tank is said to have caused the falling of the hydraulic tank lid. The nuclear submarine was a follow-up of the Navy's warship INS Arihant.
This Vizag accident follows a day after a Navy officer was killed on board on a Kolkata-class under-construction destroyer at Mazagaon dock in Mumbai.
Prior to that, two weeks ago, two officers on board the INS Sindhuratna were killed due to smoke and fire in the underwater submarine in Mumbai. This naval mishap led to the resignation of the former Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi, taking moral responsibility over the naval accidents.
Sources said that the Saturday's accident in Visakhapatnam's Eastern Naval Command took place on the Aridaman project at the ship building centre in Visakhapatnam.
Amar, the worker who died, was a civilian sub-contractor, who was a part of the construction crew. The accident took place when the hull was being pressure tested and one of the hatches flew apart.
The second in the line of three Arihant class boats, INS Aridaman, will be part of India's vital nuclear trial and is expected to join the fleet shortly.
(Edited by Anu James)
