Corrosion which has a huge economic and environmental impact on virtually all facets of the world’s infrastructure, from highways, bridges, and buildings to oil and gas, chemical processing, water and waste water systems and particularly industrial structures is making a cascading financial impact on the economy and India is losing a staggering Rs 2 lakh crore annually because of corrosion.
The Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers which has also been designated as nodal agency to deal with corrosion is going to set up Bureau of Corrosion control in the country as part of National Chemical policy to be announced soon. The Bureau of Corrosion control will help setting up standards for various chemicals, products and machinery to fight corrosion, which is eating up major part of our economy.
Chemicals and Fertilizers Secretary, Surjit K Chaudhary has said that Corrosion has a huge economic and environmental impact on virtually all facets of the world’s infrastructure and highlighted that in addition to causing severe damage and threat to public safety, corrosion especially in coastal states where salt content is high in atmosphere, water, rain and air disrupts operations and requires extensive repair and replacement of failed assets. Corrosion is a serious issue along the long coast line. Almost 3- 4% of our GDP is lost to corrosion.
Chaudhary further stated that India is a resource crunched nation and it needs sustainable and maintenance free Infrastructure that has long span of life, adding that nation cannot afford to allow new infrastructure to corrode and go for frequent repairs. He also said that here government-Industry partnership could be a good solution for sustaining benefits of anti-corrosion technologies being propagated through training and certification programmes.