The assistant director of factories in East Midnapore has this week issued notices to 31 industrial units in Haldia with directives to upgrade their fire-safety systems, the move attributed to the fire in the Haldia Petrochemicals naphtha cracker unit on August 3.

The assistant director of factories has also asked the companies to inform authorities about measures undertaken to upgrade the fire-safety systems.

Referring to state fire safety regulations as well as the Factories Act, the letter directs the companies to conduct fire drills every two months, alongside system upgrades. A timeframe of 15 days has been given for response and compliance.

"Haldia is an industrial town, and entails the operation of several factories, a few of whom deal in extremely hazardous material. It is important that they know how to respond to crises, and that we are kept informed about the same," said assistant director (factories), Debayan Dey, who had visited the HPCL plant following the August 3 fire and went on record saying he was "surprised" at the amount of hydrocarbon effluent he saw accumulated in the naphtha unit's drainage system.

The memo dated August 9 references directs units to emphasise drills, drafting of a list of emergency personnel to be shared with the government, also various up-to-date industrial regulations pertaining to fire safety.

"Air pollution is not the only thing that needs to be attended to. All other systems of effluence also need to be monitored stringently to avoid such incidents in the future. Seeing the HPCL incident spurred us to take preventative steps at all other such units immediately," he added on Friday.

No one was injured in the HPCL fire on August 3.

District authorities said the units would have to prove that they had four hours of water supply to fight fires in order for future permissions.

"Outstation tenders which have up-to-date firefighting material often take a bit of time. So, this requirement has been emphasized to units," said a source.

Thirty-one units received the letter, including the Indian Oil Corporation, Mitsubishi, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, Tata Power and Tata Steel.
Sources said IOC had already responded, agreeing to a meeting with district officials next week regarding upgrading safety systems in their Haldia plant. Other units are expected to respond early next week.

"We appreciate the authorities' initiative for safety and we will cooperate accordingly," said an official from HPCL.