Indian police have charged three local managers of the British-based Vedanta mining group in connection with a disaster at a power plant that killed 40 workers in September, police said.

The three were arrested Monday in Korba, in the state of Chhattisgarh, district superintendent of police Ratan Lal Dangi told AFP by phone.

"We have arrested these three people in connection with the collapse of the chimney. They have been charged with death due to negligence," he said late Tuesday.

The three were named as general manager of power Viral Mehta, assistant general manager Deepak Narang and project engineer Anup Mohapatra.

On September 23, a partially built chimney at a Vedanta-owned power plant collapsed in bad weather, burying laborers under tons of concrete.

Police arrested one project manager in October and confined some of the Chinese contractors responsible for the building work to the site of the plant, in Korba, 250 kilometers north of state capital Raipur.

The 178-meter chimney was being built for Vedanta's India subsidiary Balco by Chinese group Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO).

"Three senior technical staff of SEPCO have also been asked not to leave the premises of Vedanta at Korba until the investigation of the collapsed chimney is complete," police official Dangi said.

However, SEPCO's spokesperson told the Global Times shortly after the tragedy that under an agreement with Balco, "The building of the chimney, from design, material procurement to construction, has been completely contracted to Indian company Gannon Dunkerley & Co."

AFP/Global Times