CM congratulates HMR MD, team

Hyderabad, Sept 25 : Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy congratulated the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) Project MD and his team for bagging the prestigious Royal Society for prevention of Accidents Gold Medal for occupational health and safety for accident free execution of the work.

NVS Reddy showed the award to the Chief Minister this afternoon at Secretariat. The Chief Minister enquired about the progress of the project. Minister for Municipal Administration M Maheedhar Reddy was also present on the occasion.

Appreciating that this is the second prestigious international award won by the Hyderabad Metro Rail project (the first being “The Best Engineering Project of the World for the Year 2013” at New York in February this year), the Chief Minister commented that this international safety award further enhances the responsibility of the Hyderabad Metro Rail authorities and L&T engineers to ensure that the project is executed quickly with international safety standards in a flawless manner. Assuring government’s full support for the Metro Rail project, he advised the Chief Secretary Dr. P K Mohanty to closely monitor its progress.

Hyderabad Metro Rail project has been awarded the prestigious RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) “Gold” award for Construction Safety and Occupational Health for the year 2013 at Glasgow city in the UK. This is the highest international construction safety award recognized globally and the category of RoSPA “Gold” is considered a rare achievement.

Hyderabad Metro Rail project works are being executed through the construction wing of L&T group (L&TC) and the works are progressing at a brisk pace in several locations in the city. Since the works are being carried out in highly congested traffic corridors of the city in the midst of heavy traffic, one has to take extreme care and follow foolproof construction safety methods and occupational health assurance measures to ensure safety and prevent accidents.

The UK based Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), a highly respected independent international body specializing in this area, studies and monitors important construction projects across the world through independent random checking and other methods and awards different categories of safety and occupational health awards, the highest category being RoSPA Gold, selectively given to projects which follow very rigorous construction methods and safety standards measured against global benchmarks.

To ensure safety of road traffic on either side of the Metro Rail works and also occupational health and safety to the project personnel at different locations, safety and health assurance measures of international standards have been devised for the Hyderabad Metro Rail project. Scrupulous adherence to these well devised safety measures and regular monitoring/inspections are ensuring prevention of accidents and occupational hazards while executing the project works in the busy stretches of the city.

Metro works are going on for the past 16 months and so far the Metro project has crossed 3.5 crore manhours without any fatal accident, indicating the high safety standards that are being followed. Continuous safety and occupational health awareness camps for all the workers are being regularly organized by a dedicated safety team of senior engineers of L&T. Taking these measures and accident free execution of the works into consideration, the Awards Adjudication Panel of RoSPA has selected Hyderabad Metro Rail project for the prestigious “Gold” award.

The award was presented to NVS Reddy representing Government of Andhra Pradesh and C Sankaralingam representing the construction wing of L&T, which is executing the Hyderabad Metro Rail project, at a glittering ceremony held on 19th of this month at Glasgow city in Great Britain. The ceremony was attended by participants from more than 90 countries across the world and the awards were given away by Lord Bill Jordan, President of RoSPA. INN