A three-member external expert committee, headed by the Director-in-charge of the Bokaro Steel Plant of SAIL, has been constituted to conduct a high-level inquiry into the catastrophic explosion at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) that claimed eight lives on Monday.The deceased were identified as G. V. Appa Rao, Prabhakar, Bhanu Kumar, Krishna Nag, Gold Kumar, Trinadh, Appalaraju and Ramana. Of them, the first five were employees of the steel plant, while the remaining three were contract workers.The incident occurred at 4.15 p.m. in Steel Melt Shop-1, where a sudden explosion involving Caster-2 triggered a massive fireball that engulfed Overhead Crane-2.According to a press release, the blast occurred moments before the slide gate was to be opened for the transfer of molten steel.Six injured personnel are undergoing treatment at hospitals. In addition to the external inquiry, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) has initiated an internal investigation to ascertain the cause of the technical failure.Union Steel Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy is scheduled to arrive in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday to inspect the accident site and meet the families of the victims. Published - June 08, 2026 11:34 pm IST