YSR government's concern for ‘brand Vizag’ increase over rising industrial accidents

HYDERABAD: The YSR Congress government in Andhra Pradesh is increasingly getting concerned over the rising industrial accidents in Vizag over the last few weeks and the damage being caused to the brand Vizag, where it wants to shift the state’s administrative capital.
While the government is directing the authorities towards a comprehensive study to evolve a robust regulatory mechanism to avert accidents, YSR Congress ministers and lawmakers are accusing the Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of working behind the scenes to dent Vizag’s brand image.

The coastal city houses several large public and private sector units including Vizag Steel, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Shipyard, Hindustan Zinc, NTPC, Ramky Pharma City, Eisai Pharma, Mylan, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Aurobindo Pharma, Divi’s Labs, Suven Pharma, Natco Labs, GVK Bio, among others. The city also handles export and import of raw materials for various industries through large public and private ports like Vizag Port and Gangavaram Port.

Vizag saw three industrial accidents in the last couple of months, killing a few and injuring several people in the colonies adjacent to these units. Vizag Solvents reported a reactor blast on Monday night, killing at least one and injuring four. This was the second such accident involving units at the Ramky Pharma City that saw an accident at Sainor Life Sciences on June 30 killing two and critically injuring four.

Earlier, the toxic styrene gas leakage at LG Polymers on May 7 killed 15 and affected thousands.

A top executive of a pharmaceutical firm with units in Vizag, who also did not want to be identified, attributed the growing accidents to “uncontrolled adverse chemical reactions during a prolonged shutdown of units for around six weeks of national lockdown, coupled with poor maintenance works during the lockdown for want of labour and restrictions on the movement of employees.”

Neerabh Kumar Prasad, special chief secretary and the chairman of the high power committee to probe into toxic gas leakage accident at LG Polymers, said, “I had in my report suggested that more care should be taken on safety in the industrial units that were under idling conditions.” Prasad’s high power committee advised setting up a unified factory safety regulatory body after observing that “there exists a very weak institutional structure of factory safety compliances in the factories department… there are significant regulatory gaps.”