Clariant shares global best practices on Safe Transportation of Chemicals

Safe transportation of chemicals via air, water, and road requires renewed focus.
Key implementation gaps in road transportation needs to be filled in.

Mumbai (India), May 8, 2012 - Clariant Chemicals (India) Limited shared some of the important international regulations related to marine, air transport and road transportation at the 13th Chemical Weekly Business Outlook conference held in April 2012.

In his presentation titled – “Safe Transportation of Chemicals – Global & Indian Scenario”, Mr. P.A. Murali, Head–ESHA, Clariant Chemicals (India) Limited, elaborated that while Marine transportation and Air transportation are highly regulated and followed universally by all the countries, road transportation is governed by regional and national regulations and there are a number of gaps observed in its implementation in the Indian scenario. During the discussions, he highlighted some of the key elements involved in safe road transportation and the best practices followed in various countries. “It is the responsibility of everyone in the supply chain and strict compliance is essential to avoid accidents and / or minimize its impact during all stages of transportation process,” he pointed out.

Referring to the Indian regulations related to road transportation under the Central Motor Vehicle rules 1989 and the challenges in implementation, he highlighted the need for focus on some key areas:

Improving the safety standards of logistic services available in India. Globally such logistics service providers are approved as per SQAS requirements by qualified third party inspectors.
Need for more training of vehicle drivers to reduce the gap in the availability of qualified drivers for driving hazardous chemicals.
Need for correct classification, MSDS, documentation, proper labeling and communication of hazards to the drivers as many chemicals are sold with branded names.
Increased awareness among various stake holders like logistic service providers, transporters, and emergency responders like police and fire brigade personnel.
Setting up chemical emergency response centers at different locations in the country, which can quickly respond to emergencies on road.

Mr. Murali shared some of the global best practices followed by Clariant in its operations worldwide which can be used in the Indian scenario as well. He concluded the discussion with an urgent need to address the existing gaps in implementing CMV rules and the need to adopt some of the established global best practices which are already proven and can help in safe transportation of chemicals in India.