THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the wake of increasing electrical accidents involving employees of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), the power utility is all set to implement the Permit To Work (PTW) rule from July to end the innumerable tragedies involving electricity.
PTW, which is mentioned in the KSEB Safety Manual, is expected to be strictly enforced in the first week of July. PTW is already in use during work on High Tension (HT) lines in the transmission section. But majority of the mishaps which claim lives occur on the Low Tension (LT) distribution lines. This has prompted the KSEB to extend the reach of PTW to the distribution section also.
Once the PTW is in place, KSEB staff and contract employees will have to follow certain procedures before starting work on electrical installations, KSEB safety commissioner Valsakumari K said. “Before starting work on the LT lines, the workers and linemen should obtain written permission from the officer concerned. They have to fill a permit form and the officer concerned has to sign it before and after the work. Only then can they start the work. The PTW is meant to confirm whether all the precautionary measures are correctly followed,” she said.
Officials of the ranks of assistant engineer to overseer can sign the PTW and authorise works. In certain cases, the lineman also will be the authorised to sign the PTW.
The PTW will act as an intimation to officials concerned that a particular work will be carried out at a certain location. This will enable them to switch off the particular line to avoid accidents. The PTW form has columns to confirm whether the workers are using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as helmet, belt, ladder, gloves and hand tools, during work.
There is good reason why the KSEB is introducing PTW. Between 2000 and May 2014, electrical mishaps have claimed 2700 lives including that of 208 KSEB employees and 223 contract employees of the KSEB. During this period, the death toll among the general public in electrical mishaps were even higher - 2269. In 2014 alone, upto May, 13 KSEB employees and contract workers died in 54 accidents.
According to statistics the total number of accidents in 2011, 2012 and 2013 were 224, 192 and 159 respectively. It shows that the accident level was relatively higher in 2011. The majority of the victims of these accidents were contract workers attached to the KSEB section offices.
It was in May 2013 that preliminary steps for the implementation of the PTW among all the sections under KSEB were taken. A pilot study regarding this was conducted in selected electrical section offices. Around 84 sections, where maximum accidents had occurred, were selected for the study. The PTW is to be implemented on the basis of the report on this pilot study.