A major fire broke out in a conveyor belt of the Kaniha plant of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in Odisha's Talcher on Saturday causing extensive damages to the belt and panic among the plant staff and the local residents.

The fire, NTPC sources said has been doused fully and no person has received any injury apart from minor first aid to one CISF personnel during fire fighting.

NTPC Head HR BK Pandey in a release said the fire was reported at around 8.10 am in the conveyor belt 15 A and 15 B along with a coal transfer point (TP) 16 located between Unit 2 and Unit 3.

He said the fire call was quickly responded to by the CISF Fire Wing and Plant Disaster Team.

As a precautionary measure Unit 3 of 500 MW was shutdown for a brief time to contain the fire.

All other units of the plant are functioning normally.

The root cause of fire and damage is being assessed and necessary repair work will be taken up soon.

(With UNI inputs)