HINDUSTAN ZINC - MAIL TODAY - MY SAFETY IS MY RESPONSIBILITY

MAIL TODAY | 10th MARCH, 2015

The high frequency of road accidents in India is only a testimony of ignorance and disrespect towards safety. The fact cannot be ignored that more people die in road accidents in India than anywhere else in the world. Hindustan Zinc along with ‘Rajasthan Parivahan Nirikshak Sangh’ developed a Mobile Model for road safety education in Rajasthan.

A child of 13 years was sitting with his father on a scooter, when suddenly a car over-took from a wrong direction, forcing the father to apply instant brakes. The scooter stopped. Car went ahead without bothering. The father looked back, his son was safe and he was safe too. Both were wearing helmets, it was well tied-up and both were alert.

It is said, “a life saved, saves the lives of an entire family”. So true, when we care so much for lives of our family, how can we ignore the very basis life our own-self. When we know, we are the basis of the lives of our family.

‘Safety’ is not just a six letter-word, it actually defines the well-being of the entire society and finally a country. It is important to adopt safety as a habit rather than feel it is being imposed. We generally feel victims when safety is forced upon us, ignoring the facts that it is being implemented to only make our lives safer and our families peaceful.

Most of the time, the people are aware of the consequences of ignoring safety gadgets. Most of the time, the rules & regulations are ignored, for the sake of a casual behaviour towards safety.

It is ironical to penalize a person not wearing helmet by Police, knowing the fact that wearing helmet will protect the very same person from head-injury during an un-welcomed accident, which has all the potential to become fatal.

The high frequency of road accidents in India is only a testimony of ignorance and disrespect towards safety. The fact cannot be ignored that more people die in road accidents in India than anywhere else in the world.

“Where ignorance is the reason, education can become bliss”.

The need to educate masses about the necessity of safety and making them realize the fact that it is not just a matter of their life, it the life of their family that depends on them.

Accepting the grave need towards formulation of right strategy, and realizing its importance, common masses, opinion makers, government, corporates, NGOs, and other agencies have united in Rajasthan to develop a new method towards spreading message.

As a large corporate, Hindustan Zinc, world’s leading Zinc-Lead and Silver producer, a Vedanta Group company, has joined hands with Rajasthan Parivahan Nirikshak Sangh (RPNS) – a body affiliated to All India Federation of Motor Vehicles Department Technical Executive Officers Association, Bangalore, to spread the message through technology driven Road Safety Mobile Van.

This fully equipped Road Safety Mobile Van is equipped with the facility like LCD Projector with a projection screen of 42” (LCD TV), a high-decibel sound system with amplifier to reach large audience, laptop, digital camera etc. This Road Safety Mobile Van also has a digital inverter for power backup and is proving to be useful in villages where there are power-cuts. The method of teaching involves audio-video training sessions of 90 minutes, guidelines and educating traffic rules, behavioral training on road safety, first aid etc. The program is more of interactive nature and involves the audience through question and answer sessions. Road-safety guidelines are also distributed to audience. Special drives are also being launched in association with local police towards implementation of road safety rules.

This Road Safety Mobile Van would travel deep rural villages, schools and other areas and educate people about the road safety.

This unique Road Safety Mobile Van project has been sponsored by Hindustan Zinc under the “Rajasthan Road Safety Awareness Mission Program”.

Veerendra Singh Rathore, State President, Rajasthan Parivahan Nirikshak Sangh who is also the Project Head of Rajasthan Road Safety Education and Awareness Mission informed that “Road Safety Mobile Van” provided by Hindustan Zinc is proving to very useful. We are able to reach remote villages, schools and rural people. As the Van has video screen, we are able to show short films on road safety which is helping in making the people understand the gravity of situation.”

So far the project has reached about 100,000 people through conducting about 600 educational programs, which have resulted in decreasing the road accidents and injuries. There has been an increasing participation of employees of various small-big corporates. In district Rajsamand a success story has been drawn by witnessing 40% reduction in road accidents.

Hindustan Zinc spokesperson Pavan Kaushik informed that “Hindustan Zinc is concerned about the road safety and as a large corporate we feel we should help in spreading the message and decided to support Rajasthan Road Safety Awareness Mission Program. As part of our safety drills at all our business units, we regularly organize safety workshops which also has includes road safety, where in large number of employees participate.”

Inspired by the success of the program and its response, the Transport Department, Government of Rajasthan, is now planning to launch similar Road Safety Mobile Vans in all seven division of Rajasthan.

The success of this Rajasthan Government Model on Safety is now being replicated by other State Governments. The Transport Department of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are working towards developing ten such Road Safety Mobile Vans in their States to promote road safety education and awareness in public.

The Message is clear, safety cannot be ignored.

Ultimately, “My Safety is My Responsibility”, as my safety will also make my family safe, socially and economically.

HINDUSTAN ZINC "MARYADAA" - MAIL TODAY - HINDUSTAN ZINC'S STP TREATING 30% OF UDAIPUR'S SEWAGE

Another step towards “SWACHH BHARAT” 

Udaipur's First Sewage Treatment Plant...

Hindustan Zinc, a company of Vedanta Group in Zinc-Lead-Silver business has come forward and built Udaipur’s fist sewage treatment plant (STP) that treats 30% of the sewage generated by the city of lakes, a world’s class tourism destination. Udaipur generates about 70 million litres of sewage per day and Hindustan Zinc Sewage Treatment Plant is treating 20 million litres per day.   This STP has been built with a cost of Rs. 170 crore and has been constructed and commissioned on ‘Design Build Own Operate and Transfer’ basis in association with Government of Rajasthan.

Government of Rajasthan has been looking for this project for quite some time and there always has been a dire need for a large corporate to align and associate with the Government to address growing sewage problem in Udaipur. Hindustan Zinc being one of the largest corporate in Rajasthan and leader in undertaking environment friendly projects signed an agreement to undertake this project.

Udaipur, the city of lakes, elevated hills and magnificent cultural heritage with exotic palaces, celestial temples, colourful festivals and express highways is no doubt one of the most sought after national and global tourism destinations. Lakhs of tourists visit Udaipur every year.

With the time, in the last few years, the local population of Udaipur has also grown. The advent of shopping malls and multiplexes have been instrumental in building a new and modern Udaipur. As the city has grown, the maintenance of current infrastructure has also become a challenge, particularly in relation to cleanliness of majestic lakes. The challenge is to sustain the freshness of these lakes. For long, the lakes have been absorbing the disposal of human waste which has become critical as the contamination is now clearly visible on the surface of the water.

On an average, Udaipur city generates about 70 million litres of sewage per day and cleaning this sewage was itself a challenge. Currently, most of the sewage is travelling to various lakes leading to contamination of water, polluting lakes and thereby affecting overall beauty of these lakes. The only solution that was evident was constructing a large scale Sewage Treatment Plant that could take the load of treating this massive sewage. This treatment of sewage would not only keep the lakes clean, a strong move towards clean environment, but would also help in retaining the majestic looks of these lakes that attract lakhs of tourists every year.

Not just treating sewage, the Hindustan Zinc Sewage Treatment Plant, in the process, would also be generating a large quantity of manure that will be sold by Udaipur Municipal Corporation to the local bodies. This initiative itself is estimated to generate revenue of Rs. 1 crore every year. To ensure there is no piling-up of stocks of manure, the Udaipur Municipal Corporation will be disposing off the manure on fortnightly basis.

Hindustan Zinc, adhering to its commitment towards clean green environment and maintaining highest standards of waste management, commissioned this Sewage Treatment Plant in 2014. Hindustan Zinc will gradually divert domestic sewage pipeline into large pipe-lines, leading to the Sewage Treatment Plant, to reduce the flow of sewage in the lakes. 

Hindustan Zinc is one of the pioneers in adopting clean green technology in running its plants. Saving water has always been a focus area for Hindustan Zinc. While maintaining the global benchmark and working continuously towards water conservation, the company has been successfully reducing its water footprints by reducing the water consumption every year. All the business locations of Hindustan Zinc are working on zero discharge principle, while putting on efforts and research for gainful utilization of waste generated by them.

Hindustan Zinc Sewage Treatment Plant project is a major step not only towards treatment of sewage in Udaipur but also a significant initiative towards building a sustainable environment and conservation of water.