Industrial accidents in quick succession have brought to centre-stage the need to have a re-look at the safety apparatus at workplaces.
Experts, who are concerned at frequent mishaps, have called for third party inspection of process systems, safety audit to avoid accidents and launching of confidence-building measures to boost the sagging morale of the workforce.
Whether it is the GAIL pipeline burst at Nagaram, ammonia tube explosion at Glochem Industries Ltd at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City near Parawada or the blasts at HPCL Visakh Refinery on August 23, 2013 or oxygen pressure reduction station at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant on June 13, 2012, experts have termed negligence and lack of supervision as the root-cause.
“Our track-record typifies the sorry state of affairs notwithstanding the fact that Visakhapatnam has a spoon-shaped topography with sea on one side and hills on three sides with no route to escape in the event of a major disaster. We have several protocols which have to be followed with clinical precision,” former HPCL Director (Refineries) K. Murali told The Hindu.
After inspecting the accident scenario at Glochem, a bulk drug unit where 10 workers were injured on Saturday after ammonia gas leak, Joint Chief Inspector of Factories D. Chandrasekhar Varma said the ammonia gas leaked due to injection of steam instead of hot water to remove the blockade.
Tip of the iceberg“The latest GAIL pipeline accident is unfortunate but it represents only the tip of the iceberg of lack of industrial safety in the State. Apart from the series of accidents that took place in the pharma and the chemical units in Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam during the last three years, the GAIL and Glochem incidents show the potential dangers of the PCPIR scheme,” former Union Power Secretary E.A.S. Sarma said.
Fearing several Bhopal-type disasters, he asked Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to drop PCPIR project and review the safety status of various hazardous industries.
