Lanjigarh/ Kalahandi(Kalinga Voice) : Vedanta Limited, Lanjigarh, India’s premier producer of metallurgical grade alumina, organized a mock fire drill in its plant premises to test and bolster employees’ emergency preparedness as well as gauge the co-ordination between combat, rescue and auxiliary team members. The drill was virtually attended by Er. Swaroop Jena -Dy. Director, Directorate of Factories & Boilers, Rayagada Division, Er.Chandra Sekhar Behera -Asst. Director, Directorate of Factories & Boilers, Kalahandi Zone and Mr. Asutosh Mohanty -District Project Officer – OSDMA, Kalahandi District.
Talking about the safety-first culture at Vedanta’s Alumina Refinery plant, Mr. G.G. Pal, Deputy CEO-Alumina Business, said, “At Vedanta, safety of our people is our foremost priority. We have implemented world-class engineering with safety technologies and behavior-based initiatives are helping us foster a safety-first work culture. From the senior-most leaders to frontline workers, safety is core to the way we work, and we strive every single day to further bolster our safety performance. Mock drills with emergency situation simulations, such as the recent fire drill, help us assess our response mechanism, so we can be more agile and effective.”
Acknowledging Vedanta’s efforts,Er. Chandra Sekhar Behera – Asst. Director, Directorate of Factories & Boilers, Kalahandi Zone, Govt. of Odisha,said, “The preparedness of a unit in case of an emergency is a testament to its safety culture. It is essential to consider safety as a priority while carrying out the operations, and Vedanta Lanjigarh, through its regular safety drills and its best practices, has proven that safety is extremely important for them.”
Working on the ethos of Zero Harm, Zero Waste and Zero Discharge, Vedanta has implemented robust safety standards and safeguards at its Alumina Refinery, which includes best practices like mock drills, smartphone application for safety, corporate Safety Buddy initiative, annual safety calendar, etc. Vedanta Limited, Lanjigarh organizes and conducts multiple workshops, drills, and knowledge-sharing sessions in order to increase awareness about one’s safety and how one can maintain the highest standards of safety. These sessions are organized regularly within the plant premises as well as in the community.
Vedanta is the largest producer of aluminium in India and remains the premier manufacturer of metallurgical grade alumina. The company operates a 2 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) capacity alumina refinery in Lanjigarh (Kalahandi district, Odisha), India since 2007 and an associated 90 MW captive power plant.