Sangareddy: The Medak District Crisis Group, which met under the chairmanship of Collector B. Venkatesam here on Thursday, asked industries that produce or deal with hazardous chemicals to share information and to enter into mutual agreements to restrict plant-level accidents resulting in major disasters.

The committee, which reviewed the action taken report and the final off-site emergency plan prepared by the New Delhi-based Techno-Safe Consultants, found that many safety features are yet to be complied with by many industries. Except a few major industries like the BHEL and the BDL, none had entered into mutual aid agreements to share equipment and personnel in case of major fire accidents or leakage of poisonous gases.

Similarly, transport operators carrying hazardous chemicals were not trained and emergency communication facilities are yet to be established.

Report in January

The Collector asked the Inspector of Factories and Department of Industrial Safety to see that the industries shared a platform to exchange information on accidents in their units on a regular basis. This would include the information on wind movement in a particular season if the gases produced by industries were poisonous. The Collector suggested that small industries could enter into agreement with larger ones for services like fire tenders by paying some pre-agreed amount.

Mock drills

The RTA has been advised to erect signboards at all accident-prone areas on important highways furnishing information of local crisis groups. Fire Services Department would complete inspection of all the industries in the district by the end of January and submit report on the status of their fire fighting preparedness. Similarly all major industries should conduct at least one mock drill by end of January simulating a crisis scenario.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail