HITTING HOME: Radioactive trail from Otis lift buttons leads to foundry on city outskirts

Vipras Castings Ltd, tucked away in Khopoli, some 70 km from Pune, is coping with one bit of international exposure it could have well done without.

The source of its discomfort is a revelation last month that buttons installed in some 500 Otis elevators in France were radaioactive. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has traced the radioactive scrap metal to Vipras.

The buttons had been supplied to Otis by French firm Mafelec that, in turn, sourced the materials and components from four Indian companies.

It was at Vipras that the scrap containing radioactive metal was first melted and made into steel bars that were supplied to SKM Steels. SKM in turn supplied components to Bunts and Laxmi Electricals that finally sold to Mafelec. The source of the scrap, though, is yet to be ascertained.

“I received a call from my counterpart in the French regulatory board and was informed of their findings. We immediately set up an inquiry and traced the origin of the material to the Khopoli foundry,” confirmed Dr Om Pal Singh, secretary of AERB.

Singh added, though, that this is a global problem that was neither restricted to India nor very uncommon. “What is vitally needed is a stringent check at every step to counter such incidents,” he said.

Pranay Gordia, managing director of Vipras, admitted that the chain of events had ended at his foundry but said that it was a steel plant and had only made the steel bars, not the final lift buttons. Besides, the bars were made from scrap that Vipras imports from various sources, he said.

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