Akansha Pandey (cbedit@imaws.org)
Gas safety is synonymous with life safety and with time people working in the food and hospitality domain have started understanding the prominence of this concept. It was not a mandate earlier but now it’s slowly setting in. Technical staff in commercial kitchens such as Chief Engineers who are manning the place and even Chefs are realising the importance of it. Still, Ashwin Menon, Director – Business and Alliances, Gasvigil Technologies Pvt Ltd feels the food industry is at a very nascent stage and immense opportunity is lying untapped.
Earlier gas was not given too much importance and was looked upon as a fuel to run the kitchen. Unfortunately, people never understood the risk behind having such huge storage spaces with cylinders. “It’s an invisible danger and people say that you can smell the gas and figure out that there is a leakage. However, inside the kitchen products like Gasvigil become all the more important because there are numerous aromatic flavours of the dishes being made that the smell of gas mostly never gets noticed. Secondly, after the kitchen hours are over, the equipments are switched off. But large-scale premises could have over 80 to 100 equipments. Because of negligence, even if one of them is left on, any unfortunate accident can happen the next day. There will be a build-up of gas overnight and the next morning when the staff switches on the light or the exhaust fan, there could be a spark or an explosion,” states Menon.
Increased knowledge sharing and better statutory regulations by the government can play a significant role in making the industry understand the significance of gas safety. In a few states such as Maharashtra and Karnataka, the government norms have become stricter and food brands need to comply with them to avail of a Fire NOC license. Also, now international standards are coming into play with the likes of Marriotts and Hiltons establishing their presence in the Indian market and gas safety being ensured. International project management consultants have always been stressing on the need to have gas safety measurements in place and now that they are also assisting Indian food and hospitality brands, even domestic players are waking up to this idea of gas safety. Their response is encouraging but still, a massive gap is waiting to be filled, he adds.
Gasvigil had its breakthrough with Infosys in 2007. The IT brand had huge campuses which had in-house food courts and cooking facilities for more than 10-20 thousand people. Gasvigil was asked to keep a demo piece of gas detection because Infosys wasn’t much convinced on why they should use it. Thus, a sample was installed at their premises. In about two weeks’ time, a big crack in one of their pipes was detected which was going unnoticed. It was leaking for over two to three days and then started building up and in turn, the alarm started ringing. Infosys staff immediately called upon Gasvigil and highlighted about the system not working. A rupture in the pipe got identified, the smell of which was going unnoticed. Thereafter, Gasvigil won an order for all the Infosys offices across India and even today the brand has more than 1,800 detectors installed in Infosys across the country.
Formed in 2004 in Hyderabad, Gasvigil Technologies is the manufacturer, supplier, importer and exporter of a wide range of gas detectors and gas detection systems. The company is providing gas safety systems to many five-star hotels, food courts and restaurants such as Domino’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Hyatt and Taj Hotels.
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