India should have mandatory 'Corrosion Audit' in every segment of the industry so that the annual estimated direct loss of over Rs 2 lakh crore due to corrosions in terms of resources, energy and life could be drastically reduced, experts have said.
"If a legislation is passed to provide corrosion audit once in two years by large industries, the corrosion cost can be arrived in each segment," experts said at the concluding session of the CORCON Corrosion Conference.
The legislation will provide continuous information of corrosion costs in each segment to manage it and save assets of the nation, Rajan Bahri, spokesperson of the Indian chapter of National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) International told media last night.
The Indian chapter of NACE International will soon move for legislation for mandatory 'Corrosion Audit' just like accounts audit so that the country can systematically work out preventing losses due to corrosion in several sectors, he said.
To find the cost of corrosion, a suitable legislation has been adopted by the US Congress as confirmed by past President of NACE International Mark Byerley.
Another legislation for appointing corrosion officers at the site of every infrastructure is also aided by the state department.
The yearly loss in the US due to corrosion was found to be $276 billion in a study done by the US National Highway Authority in 2001, Byerley said.
The CORCON conference was held in Goa from September 23 to 26.
The mission of NACE and International Gate of India Section (NIGIS) is to protect people, assets, environment and resources from the effect of corrosion.
"We also want to bring to the notice of the public the knowledge of the loss due to corrosion, which is much more than any other calamity in terms of resources of the country," Patron in chief of CORCON and Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission Dr S Banerjee said.
Banerjee, who is also a metallurgist, emphasised that losses due to corrosion are not just economic losses but the loss of resources.
"Be it in agriculture, be it Mandovi bridge or any building collapse or bursting of oil pipe in California, corrosion plays a crucial role and scientific ways to prevent and adopting alternate solutions are important," he said.
NACE International has 100s of standards, which have to be adopted in every country, he added.
NACE has brought in a totality of corrosion science and technology and Indian scientists are committed and they have developed lot of solutions and should be judiciously applied in preventing corrosion, including in the power, oils sectors.
The NIGIS has trained about 1,000 people in India and NACE about 26,000 worldwide in multi-disciplinary aspect on corrosion and they can be appointed as a corrosion officers, Bahri said.