Only six factory inspectors for 25,000 boilers!

There are some 5,000 boilers at industrial level that are authorised to operate by law. We have another 20,000 boilers that are unauthorised. The last three boiler-related accidents this year cost 17 lives and that is not at all surprising. We are lacking in two major areas that allow for these boilers to explode so frequently. First, there is the question of factory inspectors; the law states that a factory inspector should check whether a boiler is safe to operate but there are a total of only six government inspectors working with the Office of the Chief Inspector of Boilers, which translates into every factory inspector spending 840 working days to do one round of boiler inspections. That means, given current manpower constraints, it is next to impossible to maintain any semblance of safety check on installed boilers in the country. Next we have the question of trained hands to operate these boilers, which we are informed, is sorely lacking. 

What we have here is yet another Rana Plaza-type situation literally waiting to happen. While many an industry owner and factory inspector may find comfort in the knowledge that a boiler is supposed to last 30 years, we wonder whether the mean time between failures takes into account the general lack of skilled operators handling these boilers. Mishandling results in reducing the stated lifespan of a boiler, not to mention accidents which are taking lives. We strongly urge the government to take a look at these figures and take steps to seriously beef up factory inspector numbers, because the magic number of six inspectors has lost its sheen a long time ago. Safety inspections are mandatory in any industry and there is no shortcut way around it, as there is no recourse to hiring trained technicians to handle boilers.