NDRF, CISF & BSP jointly carry out Emergency Preparedness Plan exercise
Bhilai, Sep 14: SAIL-Bhilai Steel Plant, CISF, NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) jointly conducted a Mock-drill Exercise on “Gas Leak Disaster in BSP” at Coal Chemical Plant-3 on Wednesday. The objective of this exercise was to assess the preparedness and response of different agencies during any such emergency.
It should be noted that protocols have been made in each department to deal with emergency disasters. Mock drills are organised from time to time to check the compliance to and the efficacy of these protocols. The secrecy of this mock drill is maintained so that the seriousness of the incident can be properly tested according to the protocol.
As part of the exercise, information regarding gas leakage at Coal Chemical Plant-3 was communicated to the Plant’s Fire Services and CISF simultaneously. Even as the NDRF was informed about the incident, fire tender was rushed from nearby Fire Stations inside Plant to carry out spraying & dousing operation. Personnel of NDRF who were escorted to the spot by CISF, took stock of the situation and swung into action.
Soon after the emergency situation was declared, General Manager Anand Shukla as Incident Controller immediately engaged himself and his team to communicate the nature of emergency to different agencies and to control the situation. Subsequently, CGM (CO&CCD) Rajeev Shrivastava took on the role of Chief incident controller.
Meantime, personnel from several other agencies including the Plant’s Safety Engineering Dept, Energy Management Dept, Occupational Health Services Dept etc that had been informed, also rushed to the spot to assist in the entire operation. Senior officers of the Plant including Executive Directors and other departments too reached the spot.
Even as the fire tenders were engaged in spraying operations, personnel of NDRF and Fire Services Dept brought out the ‘injured persons’ and after administering proper first aid, dispatched them in ambulances to hospital. The entire premises was searched for any other injured person even as Gas Safety personnel of Energy Management Dept identified and plugged the gas leak.
During the entire operation, various aspects of disaster management such as response time of different agencies, coordination between the agencies, movement of personnel and vehicles etc. were studied. The objective of the exercise was to ensure that any such disaster is handled in a planned manner so as to execute rescue operations properly and also to avoid creating panic among employees by making them familiar with the procedures to be followed. This exercise taught the participants how to handle such an emergency situation patiently and systematically.
During this disaster management exercise, District Superintendent of Police Dr Abhishek Pallav, NDRF Bhilai unit chief Vishwanath Choudhary, Deputy Director (Industrial Health and Safety) Ashutosh Pandey, CISF Commandant SK Bajpai and the plant’s Executive Director (Materials Management) AK Bhatta, Executive Director (Works) Anjani Kumar, Executive Director (Personnel & Administration), MM Gadre, Executive Director (Projects), S Mukhopadhyay and Chief Medical Officer-in-Charge (Medical & Health Services) Dr M Ravindranath, CGM Incharge (Services) PK Sarkar, CGM (HRD) Sanjay Dhar, CGM (Coke Oven) Rajeev Shrivastava, Acting Chief General Manager (Safety & Fire Services) GP Singh and Chief Fire Officer BK Mohapatra, nodal officer of the mock drill Dr AK Sonateke played an active role in the entire emergency preparedness exercise.
