Sigachi Blast: Total Failure on Safety, Fake Quality Claims, and Lies

Hyderabad: Sigachi Industries, where negligence by the company has been alleged in interim investigations reports by the government into the June 30 blast, had much to hide, and even may have bluffed its way through claims on how quality and safety consciousness flowed in its veins.

The report by a panel of experts appointed by the state government to investigate the disaster not only has a long list catalouging safety and other failures by the company but has also raised serious questions on just how truthful the company was, not just with the investigators but also likely the rest of the world.

That the Sigachi management was not truthful was discovered by the experts committee which first caught the company out on storage of sodium chlorite, a chemical that can combust easily, in the factory premises.

The chemical was not listed in the process flow documents submitted by Sigachi to the committee, and the company even denied that it had used the chemical at the factory in Pashamylaram. However, the committee discovered that more than a tonne of this chemical was stored at the factory.

When the committee visited Sigachi’s plant in Dahej, Gujarat, as part of its inquiries, the company informed that it used sodium chlorite for getting a “good white colour” to microcrystalline cellulose, the product it was producing at Pashamylaram when the factory exploded.

Saying that its investigations “revealed that Sigachi did use sodium chlorite in its manufacturing process (at Pashamylaram), the committee’s report said the company “tried to hide” that five of the deaths occurred due to a secondary explosion of sodium chlorite drums stored in violation of safety norms.

The report also said it found no evidence to support Sigachi’s claims that it was a certified company under ISO 14001:2015 and 45001:2018 standards. “No certification to this effect by an external auditor” was available in the documents submitted by the company to the experts panel, the report noted.

The final report of a committee of experts constituted by the state government into the Sigachi Industries plant in Pashamylaram, which killed 54 people, has several worrying findings.

Company never strengthened its civil structure despite increasing production.

Severe congestion in factory space, hazardous situations in processing and storage areas led to the disaster.

Untrained fresh workers given the task of packaging, explosion began in packaging section.

No measures taken to mitigate formation of highly combustible chemical dust, risk of ignition not addressed.

Company stored many chemicals not listed in the production process.

No firefighting equipment worth its name anywhere in the factory.

Untrained staff, no safety officer, fake claims of safety training.

Majority of workers were unskilled, unqualified and from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal.

All training materials wre in English, most workers did not know the language.

Company failed to provide records of periodic preventive maintenance.

No proper risk assessment, no viable emergency preparedness and responses plan.