Most of the industrial boilers are running without inspections and maintenances causing risks for explosion-led accidents, officials said.
According to an official at the ministry of industries (MoI) there are only five inspectors across the country to inspect 8,000 registered and more than 3,000 unregistered industrial boilers.
An official at the Boiler Inspection division under the MoI, requesting anonymity, said every inspector in a year can inspect a maximum of 150 boilers; so by the existing five it is possible to inspect a maximum of 750 boilers.
He said as a result at the current pressure from international buyers many factories are hurriedly getting inspection certificates without proper inspections and those who do not require certificates care less about inspections.
He said as per the government rules, boilers should be inspected once a year and must get renewal certificates after maintenance, hauling and some other changes as per inspection by the authority concerned.
He said, "As manpower shortage is acute; so we are inspecting the registered boilers only."
Another MoI official said inspections are made just as formal process to provide certificates.
He said at least one full day is required for inspecting an industrial boiler but the inspector is doing three to four boilers a day.
A factory mechanical engineer of an export-based garment factory said: "As our boiler is automated and its configuration is software-based; so before trouble or during any other fault we can detect it."
The MoI official said the modern boilers are less risky than boilers of ten years back and besides that as per the compliance every year his factory boilers are being inspected.
According to MoI sources, major industrial boilers are being operated in the chemical factories, garments, textiles, pharmaceuticals, thermal power plants, sugar, dyeing, paper and jute mills.
Another MoI official in the Chief Boiler Inspection Office said they are thinking and designing rules for the Chatals to bring them under the government's inspection cell.
He said there is severe manpower shortage and even the post of the chief boiler inspection officer in Dhaka has remained vacant for more than a year.
He said the two another regional offices in Chittagong and Rajshahi divisional headquarters are being controlled from Dhaka office but in fact there is not enough activities of the offices.
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