Industrial disaster drill at Digboi Refinery
The National Disaster Management Authority conducted an Industrial disaster drill at Indian Oil Corporation Limited (Assam Oil division's) at Digboi Refinery recently. The drill was conducted to test the preparedness of the civil administration concerned in the event of a major industrial disaster. The scenario envisaged for the disaster involved three mishaps: leakage of LPG at the LPG dispatch unit. Blast in hydrogen bullets in the refinery and leakage of chlorine due to catastrophic failure of toner, occurring almost simultaneously resulting in a large number of casualties. The District Administration, Civil Hospital, Civil Defence, State Fire Service, Police Department, Revenue Department, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (Assam Oil Divisions's) mutual aid partners such as Oil India Limited, Assam Gas Company Limited, North East Electric Power Corporation, Brahmaputra Valley Fertilisers Limited, Coal India Limited participated in the drill. NGOs like Lions Club of Digboi, Rotary Club of Digboi, also participated in the drill. At the concluding session, Brig (Dr) BK Khanna, senior specialist, National Disaster Management Authority, spoke on the various observations made by the expert panel of Brig Khanna, R Dubey, Director, National Disaster Management Institute, Bhopal and CR Deka, Chief Factories Inspector, Asom. He appreciated the response of the various organizations involved in the drill and pointed out the areas where further improvement could be effected. The session ended with vote of thanks from CR Deka, Chief Inspector of Factories, Asom. The National Disaster Management Authority was created after the enactment of the Disaster Management Act of the Government of India in December 2005 to spearhead and implement a holistic and integrated approach to disaster management in India. Since its inception, the authority has been stimulating disaster scenarios in various parts of the country and conducting detailed mock drills on disaster management, sources added.