17 units in Visakhapatnam scored less on safety standards

Visakhapatnam: A safety audit conducted after the fire mishap at Biomax Fuels found 17 industries in the district were maintaining very poor safety standards.

Five special teams formed by the district administration found 28 industries adhering to 70 per cent of the standards. The rest had had more than 85 per cent safety measures installed. The factories department had served notices to the industries to shore up fire safety measures.

District administration had identified 92 hazardous industries be audited for safety standards. Biomax Fuels, where a blaze lasted for 50 hours in April, had only maintained less than 50 per cent of the safety standards. The reports of the teams, which audited safety measures between May 2 and 26 in 92 identified factories in the district, were consolidated by the joint chief inspector of factories, Visakhapatnam, and communicated to the respective managements for compliance.

The joint teams comprising representatives from the department of factories, the Pollution Control Board and the fire department had conducted the audit.

“In order to measure the performance of the industry on safety, efforts were made this time to formulate a grading system. The 92 industries were graded on safety performance and compliance. A report was submitted to the district collector,” said joint chief inspector of factories D. Chandrasekhar Varma.

The district administration has also recently drawn up an action plan to tackle industrial mishaps and to prevent them.

District and city crisis groups as part of the proposed industrial safety mechanism are to be set up to deal with industrial mishaps that have become frequent in the last few years in the region. A crisis group will oversee the enforcement of provisions in Chapter-IV of Factories Act, AP Factories Rules, Indian Boilers Act, Andhra Pradesh Boilers Rules.

A core committee with representatives from the pharma/IT industry and the government bodies will be part of the crisis group, which will be a registered body. The district administration will create a rapid response team in the command centre which is being planned as part of the Vizag Smart City initiatives. The team will have bomb disposal squads, Rapid Action Force personnel, emergency vehicles and medical facilities. An industrial emergency response centre to tackle industrial mishaps will be established.