Safety system at Visakh Refinery beefed up, says ED

‘We are following OSHA as per global standards’. At present, the refinery is functioning at full rated capacity. Its crude intake daily is around 27,000 tonne. The proposal to expand the installed capacity from 8.3 million tonne per annum to 15 million tonne is awaiting clearances from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The newly built cooling tower at the Visakh Refinery of HPCL. Photo: K.R. Deepak

Learning lessons from last year August 23 cooling tower collapse, HPCL Viskah Refinery has beefed up safety apparatus by strictly adhering to workplace safety protocols.

By instilling confidence among 1,200 company employees and 2,500-odd contract workers after a series of meetings, the company has been following Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as per American standards, HPCL Executive Director V.V.R. Narasimham told The Hindu in an exclusive interview.

“Within 120 days we built the collapsed cooling tower and reconstructed the second cooling tower by using superior quality wood – Canadian Douglas Fir. The second tower, which has been partially commissioned will become fully operational shortly,” he stated.

He said all the 14 elements of OSHA including employees’ participation, process safety information, process hazard analysis, operating procedures, training, pre-start-up safety review, safety by contractors, management of change and incident investigation, were strictly followed.

At present, the refinery is functioning at full rated capacity. Its crude intake daily is around 27,000 tonne. The proposal to expand the installed capacity from 8.3 million tonne per annum to 15 million tonne is awaiting clearances from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Compensation

Mr. Narasimham said a permanent employee who died in the August 23 incident was paid benefits as per company rules. Among 27 contract workers, who died, compensation at Rs.20 lakh per head has been paid to 26 and payment is awaited to one person from Odisha for want of documentation. Among 28 injured, 14 were paid compensation as per degree of injury ranging from Rs.1.1 lakh to Rs.7.7 lakh in addition to Provident Fund and ESI benefits. Four others have to submit required certification.

Towards treatment, the company spent Rs.3.92 crore and for the first time, it engaged an air ambulance to shift the injured to Mumbai. He said they were working out the modalities for providing jobs to dependents of contract workers, who lost their lives in the incident.