Bhubaneswar: With the enforcement of standard maintenance procedure (SMP), the state has recorded a substantial decrease in fatal chemical accidents in hazardous industries during the last 10 years.
This was revealed at the State Crisis Management Group meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy at Lok Seva Bhawan here, Wednesday.
Labour Commissioner Niranjan Sahu said there are 4,490 factories and 2,497 boilers in the state. Out of them, 35 are major accident-prone factories, which spread over 13 districts.
That apart, 545 factories also have hazardous practices in their process of production. The chemical accidents generally occur because of fire, explosion and toxic release, Sahu said.
Data showed that in 2010 there were 121 fatal accidents which came down to 78 in 2012 and thereafter followed a declining trend over the years. In the current year, the number of fatal accidents in the state has come down to 31 till the date, the Labour Commissioner said.
Reviewing the progress, Tripathy directed the department to sharpen the preventive enforcement and response mechanism through close monitoring and team operation.
He 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. Directorate of Boiler and Factories was directed to enforce standard maintenance procedure in all the MAH industries making at least two visits in a year.
Tripathy further directed to convene frequent meetings of the district crisis groups (DCGs) and look into the preventive as well as awareness measures through active involvement of the local crisis groups (LCGs). At present, 29 DCGs and 15 LCGs are operating in the state.
It was decided in the meeting that Emergency Response Centre (ERC) would be set up in directorate of fire services for immediate team response at the time of crisis. Further, the Chief Secretary directed the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) to have specially designed Hazchem vehicles in their respective areas.
The oil giant IOCL was also requested to put another Emergency Response Vehicle in Khurda in addition to one in Balasore and another at Paradip.