Daily Times

Pakistan is an atomic power, possessing quite a large numbers of these “toys,” but its citizens don’t need any nuclear device to be dropped on them to face destruction. They are very actively pursuing a path of horrible ruin and instant deaths, in the form of steam-generating boilers, which are an essential part of most of the industries. These boilers range from low pressure to medium and high-pressure boilers.

A boiler is like a time bomb, which can explode at any time without prior warning if not maintained and manufactured according to the globally-recognised standards. Almost daily we read and hear stories of boiler explosions resulting in the death of innocent workers. They are supposed to get “inspected and tested.” This is the normal practice in all civilised countries.

Similarly, it is mandatory in our country for all boilers to be tested and inspected by the provincial government’s appointed boiler inspectors, who after inspection, issue a certificate of good health and the boiler being safe to operate. Our boiler inspectors visit every site where boilers of a certain capacity are installed without failure and issue the certificate of safe operation of boilers. Now, the question arises if these boilers are inspected every year, why do we hear and read regularly and frequently about the tragic stories of boiler explosions. Better leave it on the readers to dig out the reasons for this deadly occurrence(s) at an alarming rate. It doesn’t need a rocket science to get to the root cause of these unfortunate happenings.

At present, most certified boiler engineers are not aware of dangerous, devastating and suicidal consequences of not following the prescribed procedures of a very simple and routine practice of blowing down the water level gauge glasses

With the greed and desire of multiplying the financial earnings within days, the owners of industrial units, while risking the lives of operators, are always busy getting the cheapest available machinery. The same goes to pressure-vessels like boilers. Keeping in view the market trends, boiler manufacturing has taken over as a “cottage industry” in Pakistan. In every nook and corner of the country, boilers are being manufactured, without taking into consideration the global standards. The government of Pakistan’s “The Boilers and Pressure Vessels Ordinance, 2002,” has set the standards for the construction of pressure vessels in crystal clear words.

According to the said ordinance, “boiler means a closed vessel exceeding, twenty-five litres in capacity, in which water is heated, steam is generated and superheated or a combination thereof under pressure, for external use by the application of heat from combustible fuels, electricity or external thermal energy, and includes any mountings or other fittings attached to such vessel which are wholly or partly under pressure when steam is shut off by isolating valve mounted on steam generation equipment.”

The ordinance further binds the boiler manufacturers to follow the “design specification” as specified in the codes referred to in the clause (K). These are (a) Pakistan Boiler Regulations (b) ASME, (c) BS, (d) JIS, (e) ISO and (f) Prevailing Internationally Approved Code subject to the approval of the board.

The 2002 Ordinance covers all aspects of boilers, inspection, safe operation, registration, manufacturing etc.

If the contents of the 2002 ordinance are followed strictly, there exists virtually no chance of boiler explosions or unfortunate deaths due to boiler-related accidents. Unfortunately, in our country, the laws are made to be violated or to find shortcuts of bypassing the laws. On top of that, the violation of the said laws and regulation takes place in broad daylight in front of the law-enforcing authorities. Highly sensitive, critical and captious equipment like boilers are being manufactured now as “toys,” there seems to be no check on this criminal game.

Boiler engineer’s competency examinations for first-class, second-class and third-class boiler engineers are conducted to assess the competency of these engineers who after passing these examinations are certified by the competent authority to take charge of these highly sophisticated pressure vessels. A first-class boiler engineer is one who can hold the charge of any boiler in Pakistan, while a second-class boiler engineer can hold the charge of boiler up to 1600 sq-feet heating surface and a third-class boiler engineer can hold the charge of boilers having heating surface up to 500 sq-feet.

It is mandatory by law to have a certified boiler engineer at all installations where steam-generating boilers are installed, and a certified boiler engineer is to be employed according to the heating surface area of the boiler(s) in whose name that particular boiler is registered. These boiler engineers are quite highly paid as no boiler could be brought into operation without registering the same in the name of a certified boiler engineer.

The system of examination of boiler engineers is quite old with no new curriculum syllabus according to the latest developments in the design and changing automation technology being adopted by the boiler manufacturers. Unfortunately, corruption is now a part and parcel of every field in the Pakistani society and it can be assumed that the authorities responsible for conducting the boiler engineer’s examinations might also be not free from this poison. In order to eliminate the chances of any malpractice or corruption in the examination system of boiler engineers, the examination papers must be prepared in some other country like England and also be checked in the same country. In this way, any chances of corrupt practices would be eliminated and highly-qualified boiler engineers would take charge of this sensitive and important equipment installed all over the country. All boiler engineers must be made to appear in the revalidation examination of the boiler engineered after a certain period of time and to pass that examination. In this way, it’s likely that they would be able to keep themselves in line with the latest developments in boiler technology.

Pakistan has been gifted with highly qualified and proficient Marine Engineers having a vast experience of operating and maintaining extremely high-pressure boilers on sea vessels like VLLC.

For passing the marine engineering examinations, they have to go through the toughest questions when it comes to the safety of man and machinery, in which the boilers and pressure vessels carry almost the top priority. Any mistake or a wrong answer/reply on the safety question results in a very heavy penalty to the intending candidate; barring him/her from appearing in the examination for a certain period of time. With the presence of a large number of highly qualified marine engineers in the country and many serving in installations, there stands no need of a boiler engineer as the marine engineers onboard ships operate boilers, fire and water tubes of such high capacities and sophisticated electronic equipment installed on them, which are almost beyond the imagination of the present boiler engineers managing and operating boilers all over the country. The author was once encountered with a first-class boiler engineer, who came up with a novel, unique and devastating idea of inserting/fitting a spacer above the spring of a leaky safety valve of the boiler of ten tonnes per hour capacity working at eight bar pressure to stop the steam leakage from the safety valve.

On hearing this, I almost jumped from my chair; considering the devastating effects of such a solution to rectify the steam leakage from the safety valve of the boiler, and how an examiner conducting the examination of a marine engineer would have straight away imposed the heaviest possible penalty on the candidate appearing in the marine engineer’s examination. At present, most certified boiler engineers are not aware of dangerous, devastating and suicidal consequences of not following the prescribed procedures of a very simple and routine practice of blowing down the water level gauge glasses. In order to eliminate and minimise the unfortunate happenings of boiler explosions, there is an urgent need that the present boiler engineers’ curriculum be immediately changed;the pressures vessel ordinance amended with the consultations of all stakeholders; presently serving qualified boiler inspectors be retrained and educated, or new boiler inspectors from globally recognised classification societies be hired to not only inspect this highly sensitive equipment but also to train the presently serving boiler engineers with a special emphasis on the safety aspects associated with them.

Whenever a boiler explosion takes place, the authorities waste no time in registering a case against the factory owner and the supervisor.

However, sooner or later, the case gets closed with no action taken against the boiler manufacturer or the mill-owner or the inspector who last inspected the boiler and no compensation paid to the family of the deceased labourer. In our country, the life of a human being, that too of a poor labourer, is of no worth as the rate of unemployment is so high. Even the death of a few hundred labourers will make no difference for the owners of industrial units.

The optimum solution to avoid the boiler explosions is to penalise the boiler inspector who had inspected the boiler before the explosion; cancel his “competency Class Boiler Engineer” certificate. A law should be passed by the parliament of Pakistan for exemplary punishment of all such boiler inspectors along with a strict law on the manufacturing of boilers only by qualified boiler manufactures having an authorisation from the world-recognised boiler manufacturers to construct boilers as per their approved design and recommendations be allowed to manufacture the boilers.

The writer is a former marine engineer, presently serving in a private organisation. He can be reached at aamiraqil@gmail.com