Oil tankers defy safety rules, accountability
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 04 2014: Even as many loaded oil tankers of IOC are being parked at Khuman Lampak Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT), none of them have been following any safety rules and there is no clear cut guideline on who would be held accountable in case any devastating fire breaks out.

Oil tankers were given parking space at the incomplete ISBT in the wake of the then prolonged economic blockade called by the Sadar Hills District Demand Committee from August 1 to October 31 in 2011.Since then, no fire safety measures have been taken up.

In case of any accidental fire, the only equipment to fight fire is the fire extinguisher of 10 Kgs fitted in the oil tankers, sources informed.

According to safety rules, any area where oil tankers are parked should be declared as a prohibited area.

All such parking lots should have obtained explosive licences.

A meal being cooked in the open at the ISBT posing threats to all

Apart from flouting all such safety rules, drivers and their assistants cook food using kerosene stove and smoke just beside their oil tankers.

This has all the potential to spark a devastating fire which may raze the ISBT to ground in addition to wreaking havoc in the surrounding areas.

Notably, use of mobile phone by one of the injured victims of the inferno at Jaipur oil refinery was cited as one of the factors for sparking off the devastating fire.

However, all the drivers and assistants of oil tankers parked at Khuman Lampak ISBT use mobile phones even though no one is allowed to take along mobile phones while going inside Chingmeirong oil depot.

In the meantime, the State Government has been asking the IOC to remove oil tankers from the ISBT and give them alternative parking space.

But the IOC has been maintaining they could not arrange alternative parking space until the rail-fed oil depot being constructed at Malom is commissioned.

IOC has been claiming that the rail-fed depot may be commissioned by April next year.

Given these contradictory positions of IOC and the State Government, oil-tanker owners and the transporters are compelled to take responsibility for the safety of oil tankers.

The transporters have been taking the responsibility of shipping in oil from Tinsukia or Guwahati up to Imphal.

The Chingmeirong oil depot was constructed on the model of 1968 during which there were much lesser oil tankers and much lower demand for petroleum products.

But today, the number of oil tankers have multiplied manifold in accordance with the growing demand.

As all the loaded oil tankers cannot unload at the Chingmeirong depot at a time, the drivers/transporters take the oil tankers to their homes.

But this again create many problems, as the transporters cannot arrive at the depot on time for unloading.

Moreover there were incidents of oil tankers catching fire sometimes resulting in fatal casualties during the process of siphoning off fuel illegally.

As such, oil tankers need to be parked together at a common place in compliance with all the safety rules, the sources added.