7 minute read
SHANKER KUPPUSWAMY
PCEO,NICER GLOBE
DEVELOPING RESPONSIBLE STAKEHOLDERS
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Safety, security and sustainability are always mentioned in any discussion on the chemical industry. In official meetings/gatherings/seminars these are buzz words. As much as it is expressed with intent & commitment, it also underlines the message of concern.
This concern is not unfounded considering the nature of the product, its exposure and its vulnerabilities. The Indian chemicals industry stood at US $178 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach US $304 billion by 2025 registering a CAGR of 9.3 per cent. The demand for chemicals is expected to expand by 9 per cent per annum by 2025. The speciality chemicals constitute 22 per cent of the total chemicals and petrochemicals market in India. The opportunities for the industry are huge and certainly, there is a need to ensure that operations on the ground match the intent. So, the intent often stated by the business leaders and the regulators shall have to be effectively demonstrated at the ground level as well.
Talking about safety and security, where do our responsibilities end? Certainly not at the gate of our premises but till the product reaches its destination. Sure, we have insured our transportation, which may redeem the monetary losses, sure we have a contract with the transporter to take utmost care and caution, but is the transporter adequately equipped or trained to handle the product safely and securely? More often than not, we would not be able to respond to this question affirmatively as we may not know the actual driver or number of trips that he has done to the principal, as this is not effectively monitored or reviewed.
When an incident occurs and if the driver or transporter failed to act responsibly, it shall be an act of omission of the principal. It will lead to a bad reputation and in today’s world, this will be amplified across the world in no time.
India tops the world in road crash deaths and injuries. It has 1 per cent of the world’s vehicles but accounts for 11 per cent of all road crash deaths, witnessing 53 road crashes every hour; killing 1 person every 4 minutes. In the last de-
2015
2016 2017 2018 2019 Road accidents, Number of persons killed and injured in the last five years 2015- 2019 Total Number of
Road Accidents (in numbers) % change Total Number of Road Accidents (in numbers) % change Total Number of Road Accidents (in numbers) % change
Number of accidents, Number of persons killed and those injured by the category of Roads in 2019
Category of Roads Length as on 31.3.18 (P) Accidents
Persons killed Category of Roads Category of Roads Category of Roads
Kms % age share in total Number % age share in total Number % age share in total Category of Roads Persons injured
Number % age share in total
National Highways 1,26,350 2.03 1,37,191 30.55 53,872 35.65 1,37,549 30.47 State Highways 1,86,908 3.01 1,08,976 24.27 38,472 25.46 1,11,831 24.78 Other roads 59,00,858 94.96 2,02,835 45.17 58,769 38.89 2,01,981 44.75 Total 62,15,797 100 4,49,002 100 1,51,113 100 4,51,361 100
cade, 13 lakh people died and another 50 lakh got injured on Indian roads. The World Bank report estimates the crash costs at Rs. 5.96 lakh crore or 3.14 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
The National Highways which comprise 2.03 per cent of total road network, continued to account for a disproportionate share of 35.7 per cent of deaths in 2019. The State Highways account for 3.01 per cent of the road length accounted for 24.8 per cent of deaths. Other roads which constitute about 95 per cent of the total roads were responsible for the balance 39 per cent of deaths respectively. The heavy vehicles contribute about 10 per cent of the total incidents. Around 55 per cent of the crash fatal incidents are involved in the states where chemical sector essentially operates.
Road accidents are multicausal and are the result of an interplay of various factors. These factors act interactively to cause road accidents. Any strategy for designing the countermeasures for accidents should therefore be based on a safe system approach which simultaneously recognizes the importance of traffic legislation for promoting safe road user behaviour, safe road designs (lane width, shoulder presence, number of lanes, median, vehicle design, etc.) and safe vehicle design. The key factors identified in road accidents are: Human errors: Lack of fo-
cus, fatigue, driving under influence of alcohol, not following traffic rules may all contribute to human errors
Road environment: Residential areas, commercial areas, road design shall be the key factors
Weather conditions:
Extreme weathers leads to poor visibility
Overaged vehicles:
Vehicles that are 10 years old or more contribute nearly 42 per cent of the accidents Overloaded vehicles: This contributes to about 8 per cent of the incidents. What the data and the findings reveal that transporting on Indian roads is a high risk in nature and if we fail to address it, it shall certainly jeopardize our operations. How do we address it? From the findings of the incident details, the focus area should be the driver; journey; product knowledge; vehicle; process; and infrastructure Driver: It begins from driver induction, orientation, training, monitoring, review, recognizes and reward exceptional performances Journey: Risk assessment, resting locations assessment, road audits need to be carried out and ensure that the driver is aware of on every trip. Road traffic is
Road accidents can broadly be categorized into three - Human errors; Road environment; Weather conditions; Over aged vehicles; and Road Accidents and Road Accident related deaths Overloaded vehicles
on different categories of NH during 2019
Categories Total Road accident of NH Accidents Fatalities Road Accidents and Road Accident related deaths on different categories of NH during 2019 National highway 87,966 35,605 under NHAI Share in Total 64.12 66.09 National highway Under 38,352 13,495 State PWD Share in Total 27.96 25.05 National highway under Other 10,873 4,772 Departments Share in Total 7.93 8.86 TOTAL 1,37,191 53,872
State wise number of accidents and ranking in total accidents during 2015-2019
S. No. States/UTs Total Number of Road Accidents occurred in States/UTs Change in 19 over 18
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
% change in 19 over 18 Rank of States/UTs in Total Number of Road Accidents
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
284 249 241 277 237 -40 -14.4 29 29 30 30 30
3 Assam 6,959 7,435 7,170 8,248 8,350 102 1.2 17 16 16 16 16 4 Bihar 9,555 8,222 8,855 9,600 10,007 407 4.2 15 15 15 15 15 5 Chhattisgarh 14,446 13,580 13,563 13,864 13,899 35 0.3 11 11 11 11 11 6 Goa 4,338 4,304 3,917 3,709 3,440 -269 -7.3 21 21 18 21 21 7 Gujarat 23,183 21,859 19,081 18,769 17,046 -1,723 -9.2 9 10 10 10 10 8 Haryana 11,174 11,234 11,258 11,238 10,944 -294 -2.6 13 13 11 14 13 9 Himachal 3,010 3,168 3,114 3,110 2,873 -237 -7.6 22 22 16 22 22 Pradesh 10 Jammu & 5,836 5,501 5,624 5,978 5,796 -182 -3.0 19 19 14 19 18 Kashmir 11 Jharkhand 5,162 4,932 5,198 5,394 5,217 -177 -3.3 20 20 14 20 20 12 Karnataka 44,011 44,403 42,542 41,707 40,658 -1,049 -2.5 4 3 4 4 5 13 Kerala 39,014 39,420 38,470 40,181 41,111 930 2.3 5 5 5 5 4 14 Madhya 54,947 53,972 53,399 51,397 50,669 -728 -1.4 3 2 3 2 2 Pradesh 15 Maharashtra 63,805 39,878 35,853 35,717 32,925 -2,792 -7.8 2 4 4 6 6
Source: https://morth.nic.in/road-accident-in-india
dynamic, in today’s time, technology in place to capture and allow us to pass the information which shall be useful during the journey Product knowledge: Product knowledge/awareness is essential for the driver/transporter. This helps in his understanding and also build ownership. Vehicle: The standard of the vehicle and its product compatibility is critical Process: If we had defined standards for the above, it has to implemented through the standard operating procedure and continuously reviewed Infrastructure: Resting locations has to be identified from a safety and security perspective. From a chemical transportation perspective, quick response squads and emergency call centre are the need of the hour to handle on-road emergencies to attain an acceptable standard on the above, it shall be a journey. A community forum like Nicer globe, promoted by ICC shall play the role of guardian for the industry at large and bring in the efficiencies on the operations. This is critical, considering the logistics cost in India is hovering around 13-14 per cent, which is the highest in the world.
Through the active participation of all the stakeholders, we develop responsible stakeholders and drive ownership. An ecosystem to comply with our requirements.
The process has begun through our forum; we should be part of the change to bring the change…. Let’s make our place better!
