Overview of Indian
Hazardous Location System

The Indian system for the manufacture, certification, installation, use and inspection of Hazardous Location Equipments (called as Ex-Equipments) is a complex topic, highlights B.K. Gupta.

Introduction
This article is being presented to project the overview of Hazardous Location System as prevailing at present in India. The Indian system for the manufacture, certification, installation, use and inspection of Hazardous Location Equipments (called as Ex-Equipments) is a complex topic. In an attempt to understand this system, we will go through the role of various parts of the system involved as listed below:

1. Product Code
2. Product Testing and Certification
3. Product Quality Control
4. Acts and Rules
5. Product Installation and Maintenance
6. Interface Issues

Product Code
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the National code laying body in India. The role of BIS code in Indian hazardous location system is to cover all the aspects relating to area classification, equipment construction, testing, selection, installation and maintenance of Ex equipments. IEC is the international body for code laying. NEC takes up this role in USA and CENELEC in Europe. Wide part of the world including India accepts these international codes for Ex equipments of imported origin. At present, various BIS codes pertaining to Ex equipments are very old. Although many of these codes are based on IEC, BS and VDE standards prevailing at the time of adoption of these codes, they have not undergone changes inspite of the fact that reference codes (i.e. IEC, BS and VDE) themselves have undergone changes many times since then. EU countries have adopted CENELEC codes, which are identical to IEC as CENELEC and IEC have co-operation agreement for harmonisation of standards. This has led to the situation where BIS codes are not at par with International codes like IEC/ CENELEC. Due to this, Ex equipments of Indian origin are not acceptable in the international market. In this era of globalisation this situation is ringing death bell for Indian manufacturers. With removal of negative list for import of items, no non-tariff barrier is possible under GATT regime and Indian industry has to be ready for global competition. Relevance of smallscale industry is lost, as they have to compete with global players having mass production base. Only option left for Indian industry is to produce world-class goods conforming to international standards and compete with global players not only on home turf, but also in the international market. Let us see, what IEC says about importance of International Standards. It says, “IEC’s International Standards facilitate world trade by, effectively removing technical barriers to trade, leading to new markets and economic growth. Put simply, a component or system manufactured to IEC standards and manufactured in country A can be sold and used in countries B through Z.” Due to non-adoption of IEC codes, Indian manufacturers and users of Ex equipments are at disadvantage vis-à-vis International manufacturers and users.
Two prominent examples being:
1. IEC permits use of increased safety equipments in Group II Zone 1 locations whereas BIS does not permit this and restricts its use in Group II Zone 2 only. This stipulation covers major Ex equipments like luminaries, motors and terminal housing.

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