Bhagalpur, Dec. 12: Officials of super thermal power project at Kahalgaon, a unit of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), could not believe their eyes when wagons filled with soil pulled into the plant on Sunday.

They were expecting a rake full of coal to arrive at the plant. However, nine of the 59 wagons in the rake carried soil instead of coal, much to the shock of the NTPC Kahalgaon management.

Now, the NTPC authorities are demanding a probe into the irregularity. They have, in fact, written to officials of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) for a joint investigation into the incident.

According to P.K. Upadhay, the additional general manager, operation and maintenance, NTPC Kahalgaon, the plant received one rake of coal from ECL’s Raniganj (Bengal) coal pit through Eastern Railway. The rake first reached at Kahagaon railway station from where it arrived at the plant through NTPC’s merry-go-round (MGR) tracks.

“As soon the coal rake containing 59 wagons reached the plant, we were surprised to find nine wagons full of soil instead of coal. The soil wagons were separated before unloading the coal from the remaining 50 wagons,” he said.

A.K. Das, the senior public relations officer of super thermal project, Kahalgaon, said he was informed about the incident over phone. “Today we have sent letters to ECL requesting for a joint inspection of the nine wagons stationed here,” he told The Telegraph over phone.

Samar Singh, the station manager of Kahalgaon railway station, has informed about the incident to chief controller and assistant operating manager, Malda division, Eastern Railway.

Sources at Kahalgaon unit said some workers raised an alarm after seeing soil in the wagons of the rake.

“I saw sand in the wagons while crossing the railway foot overbridge. The rake was stationed under the bridge,” said Rajesh Kumar, a resident. The sources also pointed out that on Sunday, the rake took more than 25 hours to reach Kahalgaon from Andal while gene-rally such a distance is covered between 10 and 11 hours.

The 2340MW Kahalgaon super thermal power project receives 11 to 15 rakes of coal everyday to meet the fuel demand at the unit. This is a first-of-its-kind incident at the unit.

“The incident might be a human mistake. Sand may have been loaded in place of coal at the loading site. The actual reason would be found out only after proper investigation,” said an NTPC official on condition of anonymity. The officer, however, expressed concern over such incidents. “This plant is already facing severe coal crisis and such things would only compound the problem,” he said.