Many tragedies later, SOPs for ammo dumps in offing

There is a subtext in the narrative of the May 31 inferno at the Central Ammunition Depot (CAD) at Maharashtra’s Pulgaon that claimed the lives of at least 19 bravehearts and wounded at least another score. Do standard operating procedures (SOP) exist for disposal of defective ammo, and how effective are they

In a tacit admission in Parliament on Friday, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said: “A SOP for disposal of defective ammunition in a fixed timeframe, fixing up of responsibility for defects and regularisation of laws is under formulation, which will be issued very soon.” He added that the government is also trying to ensure that “no defective material is supplied to the armed forces from ordnance factories”.

Another admission followed when he said that the Army headquarters would take up “disposal of all defective segregated mines for exudation of TNT, held at various locations” while the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) would replace or repair defective ammunition within three months.

A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had found that between 2005-11, ordnance factories supplied faulty weapons and ammunition worth `181 crore to paramilitary and state police forces after they were earlier rejected by the Army, putting at peril the lives of lakhs of men engaged in security operations.

One rejected lot of ammunition issued to the Andhra Pradesh police had caused an accident damaging weapons and causing minor injury on the face of the firer due to the splinters of fired cartridges.

In another CAG finding, it was reported that more than `408 worth of tank-fired ammunition — 1,02,014 rounds — that made its way into army depots in 2009-10 were found to be faulty, much before completing the prescribed shelf life of 10 years.

No thorough investigation and analysis was conducted to find out why and how this took place.

To meet the Army’s shortfall, ammunition worth `279 crore (16,000 rounds) had to be imported from Rosoboronexport, a Russian company.

The minister also said that a committee is reviewing the outer safety distance (OSD) norms with regard to ammunition depots and it is at an advanced stage.

An informed source told this newspaper on the CAD inferno that the fire was caused by leaking TNT igniting anti-tank mines. “The explosives had long expired and had started leaking. The OFB had been asked many times to take out the expired ammo and dispose it off as per norms. Only thing is that the OFB kept on delaying, not days, weeks and months but for several years. The explosion had to happen.”

The source also said that this depot stored the entire range of explosives from small arms bullets, bombs, landmines, high-caliber ammunition of armoured vehicles, battle tanks to state-of-the-art missiles like Brahmos and would have caused unthinkable damage to India’s defence preparedness and war-readiness if the fire had spread to the other storages.

The 60-year-old CAD, spread over 7,000 acres, is the central repository of all ammo from different procurement agencies like ordnance factories and trade sources which is distributed to various depots and field ammunition depots for replenishing stocks.

Ironically, the CAD Pulgaon depot had recently been awarded for using solar energy to get rid of ammunition beyond the usable date also dispose off certain kinds of ammunition.

BULLET POINTS A SOP for disposal of defective ammunition underway Accountability to be fixed for defects Laws to be regularised OFB to replace/repair defective ammo within 3 months Outer Safety Distance norms being reviewed Upgrade/improve storage facilities Introduce underground storage facilities for all explosives Widening distances parameter

BOX1: Recent depot fires: May 31, 2016: CAD, Pulgaon, 19 people died March 26, 2010: Panagarh depot fire resulted in huge losses. December 4, 2008: Bhuj depot explosion killed two army men inspecting old and outdated ammunition. August 12, 2007: Two army men and one civilian killed in a fire at a south Kashmir depot. April 29, 2001: Huge fire from ammunition at Mamoon Cantonment near Pathankot