The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
JHARSUGUDA, FEB 14, 2024
Vedanta Aluminium, India’s premier aluminium producer, observed National Road Safety Month in Jharsuguda with an extensive month-long awareness campaign. This initiative targeted employees, business partners, and the wider community, aligning with the State Government’s ‘Sadak Suraksha, Parivar Raksha’ and the Ministry of Road Transport’s ‘Be a Road Safety Hero’ campaigns. Over 25,000 citizens in the district were engaged, emphasizing the critical importance of adhering to traffic regulations and upholding road safety norms.
The campaign comprised various activities, including awareness sessions, road safety rallies, screenings of short films dedicated to promoting road safety, and engaging street plays featuring actors portraying mythical characters Yamraj and Chitragupta. These efforts were well-received by participants and audiences alike.
Activities were conducted in key areas of Jharsuguda town, such as Beheramal, Badhieimunda, Sarbahal, and Jharsuguda Bus Stand, as well as in several schools and colleges across the district. The road safety street play also took center stage during the Republic Day Celebrations organized by the Jharsuguda District Administration. Additionally, first aid and emergency response training sessions were conducted among employees and business partners across Vedanta’s plant operations, along with free medical camps and defensive driving programs.
Dignitaries including Odisha’s Rural and Skill Development Minister Priti Ranjan Ghadai, Jharsuguda Collector Aboli Sunil Naravane, Superintendent of Police Parmar Smit Parshottamdas, Regional Transport Officer Dinabandhu Sundhi, Motor Vehicle Inspector Lokanath Meher, and Sub-Divisional Police Officer Nirmal Kumar Mohaptara were present to witness Vedanta’s Road Safety Month initiatives.
Vedanta Aluminium COO Sunil Gupta reiterated the company’s commitment to safety, stating, “At Vedanta Aluminium, the safety and wellbeing of our workforce and the community is of critical importance to us. Through various innovative initiatives such as street plays and intensive training programs, we seek to instill the message of ‘Safety-first, Always’ amongst our workforce and collaborate with the government and communities towards building a safer tomorrow.”
RTO Dinabandhu Sundhi lauded Vedanta Aluminium’s efforts, stating, “Such holistic awareness interventions contribute to safer communities. I thank Vedanta Aluminium for raising awareness on road safety in and around our Jharsuguda community and supporting the District Administration in bolstering road safety awareness across the region.”
Vedanta Aluminium has implemented several initiatives including the Safety Culture Transformation Programme ‘Sankalp’, Safety Stand Down programme, Regular Mock Drills & Safety Awareness Sessions, Extensive digitalization of operations and processes to minimize human interaction with machines, Manufacturing Execution System for 360-degree visibility of critical plant operations, Video analytics for immediate detection of fire events and monitoring of employee adherence to safety standards, Augmented and Virtual Reality Training Centre for enhanced safety training, and Fire, electrical & household-safety training sessions to strengthen its safety-centric culture.
As India’s largest producer of aluminium, Vedanta Aluminium manufactured more than half of India’s aluminium, totalling 2.29 million tonnes in FY23. The company is renowned for its value-added aluminium products critical for various industries and has been recognized for its sustainable development practices, ranking 1st in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2023 world rankings for the aluminium industry. With world-class aluminium smelters, alumina refinery, and power plants in India, Vedanta Aluminium remains committed to spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.
