Nine workers were killed and 14 injured after an explosion ripped through a gas pipeline at the Bhilai Steel Plant complex in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, less than four months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had dedicated the facility to the nation after a modernisation and expansion programme.

This is the second time in four years that a mishap has rocked the 63-year-old steel complex, considered the best plant of the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).

SAIL officials said the fire broke out around 10.30am in a gas pipeline connected to the coke oven battery complex No. 11 during a scheduled maintenance job and had since been brought under control.

About two dozen employees were working at the site in Bhilai town, around 30km from the capital Raipur, when the blast occurred.

“At least nine people were burnt to death while 14 received injuries and most of them were said to be in a serious condition,” inspector-general of police (Durg range) G.P. Singh told PTI.

Bhilai Steel Plant officials said the bodies were badly charred and had not been identified till late in the evening. Police and a rescue team rushed to the spot after the blast was reported. The injured have been taken to hospital.

“All resources have been mobilised to provide adequate care to the injured,” the steel ministry said in a statement. “We are providing all the support to the families of those who have been affected,” an official added.

The Centre has sent a high-powered team headed by junior steel minister Vishnu Deo Sai to investigate the incident. The other members of the team are steel secretary Binoy Kumar and SAIL chairman Anil Chaudhury.

On June 14, Modi had dedicated the Bhilai Steel Plant to the nation after the modernisation and expansion programme that cost Rs 17,000 crore and that raised the plant’s capacity to 7 million tonnes from 4 million tonnes a year.

On Tuesday, Modi was at Sampla in Haryana at the invitation of steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh to unveil a statue of his grandfather, the Jat peasant leader Sir Chhotu Ram. Modi has been briefed on the situation, officials said.

Bhilai Steel makes railway tracks, wire rods, merchant products, earthquake-resistant grade of TMT and heavy structurals.

Officials described the gas pipeline blast as an industrial accident but claimed that production would not be affected as the pipeline was already under maintenance.

In June 2014, six persons, including two deputy general managers, had died in the Bhilai plant following a gas leak.

Modi at the Bhilai plant on June 14 when the modernised facility was dedicated to the nation Source: Agencies