HYDERABAD: The industrial accident in Visakhapatnam has raised questions over the safety of people residing in areas close to industries, especially now as many factories would be restarting their full-fledged operations post-lockdown.
Director of Factories, B Raja Gopala Rao, said, "There are definitely two industrial units in the State that utilise styrene, the killer gas that leaked out in Vizag on Thursday. Apart from them, there might be one or two more units that use the chemical. They do not store styrene in large quantities like in the Vizag plant and have only a few hundred tonnes of it.
However, safety inspections are being done regularly and we will inspect them once again in the wake of the Visakhapatnam disaster.” Gopala Rao said, "The factories have staff who are experts in the know-how of how to completely shut down and restart safely. Every factory follows the standard operating procedures. While bulk drug companies were allowed to work during the lockdown, the factories that were required to be shut were asked to ensure that all their chemical processes were completed before they were shut down. They were not closed abruptly."
Telangana has more than 3,000 high-risk factories
He added that there was no need to conduct special inspections just because they would be restarting operations post-lockdown. According to the Department of Factories, there are more than 3,000 high-risk factories in the State. However, according to the rules, these factories are inspected only once a year, while the medium-risk factories are inspected once in two years and low-risk factories once in five years.
However, people residing in and around Hyderabad are sceptical. The Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) regularly receives calls complaining of foul smell from people living in places located close to the industrial areas like Nacharam, Bachupally, Quthbullapur, Jeedimetla, Kukatpally or Gajularamaram.
In some places like Gaddapotharam near ORR, people suffering from the smell of noxious gases emitted by pharma companies is a daily affair.The State government has not yet completed shifting of around 1,125 red and orange category polluting industries from within the ORR to the outskirts, many of which are chemical and pharma companies. These are to be shifted to the yet-to-be-developed Hyderabad Pharma City.