What happened
The Sakti Singhitarai project was launched in 2009 as Athena Chhattisgarh Power Ltd, then sat abandoned mid-construction between 2016 and 2022 — a 1,200 MW partially-built coal-fired power plant left rusting for six years. Vedanta acquired the stalled asset in 2022 and pushed it back into construction and commissioning. On April 14, 2026, a steel tube carrying high-pressure steam from boiler to turbine ruptured at Unit 1, killing at least 14 workers immediately and pushing the death toll above 20 over the following days as injured workers succumbed in hospital. Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai ordered a state government inquiry; Sakti Collector Amrit Vikas Topno appointed the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Dabhra to conduct a separate magisterial probe with a 30-day deadline; Vedanta announced its own internal investigation. Each has a chair, a calendar, and a remit. None of them is asking the obvious question, which is what kind of commissioning timeline takes a six-year-old half-built plant straight to a fatal steam tube failure.