Number of chemical accidents in Hazardous industries has come down: Labour Commissioner

The number of chemical accidents in Hazardous industries in Odisha has come down in the last 10-years, a senior official of the Labour Department said.

The state has recorded a substantial decrease in fatal chemical accidents in hazardous industries during the last 10-years, Labour Commissioner Niranjan Sahu after attending the State Crisis Management Group Meeting here on Wednesday.

Of the 4490 factories and 2,497 boilers operating in the state, 35 factories have been identified as most hazardous accident-prone units, Sahu said, adding that these industries are spread over 13 districts. Apart from the 35 most vulnerable factories, around 545 other industries also undertake hazardous practices in their process of production. The chemical accidents generally occur because of fire, explosion and toxic release, Sahu said.

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He said while there were 121 fatal accidents in such factories in 2010, it was reduced to 78 in 2012. In the current year, the number of fatal accidents in the state has come down to 31 till the date, Sahu said.

Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy directed the department to ensure preventive enforcement and response mechanism through close monitoring and team operation.

Tripathy also directed all the major accident hazardous (MAH) factories to update their Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) as per changing condition of the machinery and production process.

The Director of Boiler and Factories was directed to enforce standard maintenance procedure in all the MAH industries through at least two visits in a year.

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The chief secretary also directed RSP (Rourkela steel plant) and IOCL (Indian oil corporation limited) to have specially designed HAZCHEM vehicles in their respective areas.

IOCL was also requested to put another Emergency Response Vehicle in Khurda in addition to one in Balasore and one inParadeep. Sahu said the meeting resolved that Emergency Response Center would be set up in Directorate of Fire Services for immediate team response at the time of crisis.