Jharsuguda: Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest aluminium producer, has launched a cutting-edge light motor vehicle (LMV) and heavy motor vehicle (HMV) simulation training centre to promote road safety among drivers working at its mega aluminium plant inJharsuguda, Odisha.
This new facility epitomizes the company’s ongoing commitment to enhancing operational safety, fostering skill development, and upholding the highest standards of excellence in the transportation sector.
The newly inaugurated training centre boasts sophisticated simulators designed to deliver highly realistic training experiences for both LMV and HMV operators. The centre’s primary objective is to refine driver skills, mitigate operational risks, and ensure rigorous adherence to safety protocols. By facilitating hands-on training in a controlled environment, the centre will significantly contribute to the development of essential driving competencies and the overall enhancement of road safety.
Speaking about the project, Sunil Gupta, COO, of Vedanta Aluminium, said, “The safety of our workforce is our foremost priority at Vedanta Aluminium. This strategic intervention reflects our unwavering commitment to operational safety. We are confident that this centre will be instrumental in advancing road safety practices within our operations and setting new industry standards with increased focus on safety, skill development and improving the logistics landscape.”
The simulation training centre is the latest among several initiatives that Vedanta Aluminium has undertaken to strengthen its safety-centric culture. These include:
- Sankalp, a safety culture transformation programme for employees and business partners. This has been implemented across all sites.
- Augmented and virtual reality training centre to enhance safety training and offer an immersive and engaging experience for shop floor workers.
- Extensive digitalization of operations and processes to minimize human interaction with machines and a manufacturing execution system to ensure 360-degree visibility of critical plant operations, allowing for remote decision-making through mobile applications.
- Video analytics for immediate detection of fire events and monitoring of employee adherence to safety standards, ensuring continuous plant safety.
- An all-women fire-fighting team ‘Agnivahini’ at Jharsuguda, has been meticulously trained to act efficiently and effectively in the event of an emergency, offering off-site response support to the local administration and community.
- Safety Stand Down, a programme wherein leadership teams regularly engage with employees and business partners on various facets of health, safety and environment, to build a holistic safety-first culture.
- Regular mock drills and safety awareness sessions were organized in collaboration with the National Disaster Reduction Force (NDRF) and Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA).
Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing more than half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.37 million tonnes in FY24. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. Vedanta Aluminium ranks 1st in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2023 world rankings for the aluminium industry, a reflection of its leading sustainable development practices. With its world-class aluminium smelters, alumina refinery and power plants in India, the company fulfils its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.
