I was invited to participate in the ASSE
Safety India 2014 conference which was held on May 26-27, 2014 at Hotel Leela Palace,
Chennai.
I was given a slot to speak in the
technical session on Road Safety on May 26, 2014.My colleague speakers included
Mr. Suresh Tanwar, VP-SHES, Tata Motors; Mr. Venkata Subba Rao Chunduru,
AVP-GMR Highways and Mr. Sudhir R. Hoshing, CEO-Roads Business, Reliance
Infrastructure Ltd. The Chairman of the session was Mr. Ashish Wig,
Infrastructure Committee Chairman, American Chamber Of Commerce, India.
I
started off by raising a very pertinent question to my previous two speakers
who were expert highway makers. My question to them was that why a flower bed is created in the dividing strip of two parts of
an express highway , viz. Mumbai-Pune Expressway? It is seen that a watering tanker
is employed which runs at a very slow speed in the rightmost lane slowly
watering the flowerbed.This is an open invitation to a major sik as the
vehicles run on a speed of about 120 Kilometers per hour.The question was
left for highway makers for their food for thought.
The time allotted to me was 15 minutes. My
presentation was related to the safety factor in transportation of Dangerous
and Hazardous Goods especially for smaller loads. Here are the main points of
my discussion-
1.
The safety is structured on 4
Es – Engineering, Enforcement, Education and Emergency Care.
2.
Engineering aspect in India is
world class. Accidents don’t happen in India because of poor engineering. Our
vehicles and our highways are world class with full back up of quality R&D.
3.
Enforcement has three areas- a.
Enacting laws b. Implementing them on ground level and c. Punitive policy on
violation. There are sufficient laws as part of Motor Vehicle Act and Carriage
By Road Act 2007. These laws expect the consignor to give full information
about their D&H goods to the transporter; transporter is expected to give
full information in writing to Driver and the driver is expected to follow the
given guidelines. Apart from this the vehicle carrying the D&H goods is
expected to display the label of the related consignments nature and degree of
danger. Apart from these there are provisions of adequate insurance and first
aid kit etc.
4. My focus area was
transportation of Dangerous and Hazardous Goods when they are transported in
small quantity. All the rules and instructions are framed keeping the Full Load
Consignments in mind. The ground reality is that all dangerous and hazardous
goods are transported in India in small quantities also viz. a drum, a bag, a
carton or a can. Small quantities of such goods are booked by the manufacturers
to general parcel transporters without disclosing the nature of the goods.
Transport Companies’ booking clerks are not educated enough to understand the
chemical names and its nature. The goods are loaded along with other general
goods in the trucks.
5. There is a continuous risk
involved right from the point of booking, loading, transit, unloading and
delivery at destinations. The risk can be of major accidents involving loss of
eye sights or even life of people around it. The fact is that regularly small
or big accidents are happening in this uncontrolled system.
6. There are no laws
prevailing to control the movement of H&D goods as part loads in India. The
question is – Is a part load less Hazard or Danger ?
The presentation was finished with this
question. Audience response was very positive. From audience Mr. Milind M.
Tare,DGM(Safety) of Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd. met me and
shared his experience that they do receive such small loads for their laboratory.
He also requested for certain procedural details on mail. A similar sharing was
done by a gentleman from L&T.
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