Electrical Product Quality Has Declined: RR Kabel Managing Director

The Indian wires and cable manufacturers should improve the quality of their products to ensure safety of people around the world, RR Kabel Ltd. Managing Director Shreegopal Kabra has said.

The cost of maintaining this quality in buildings and even personal residences through good plumbing, electricals and firefighting equipment will not be more than Rs 40 per square feet, he told BQ Prime in an interview.

“Seventy-seven people die every day worldwide on account of electrical fires,” Kabra said. He urged the industry not to compromise on quality because it’s a question of safety.

“There are manufacturers who are playing with (the) quality of products to remain profitable,” Kabra said. “The quality of electrical products has gone down in (the) last few years.”

In India, there is only one agency—Bureau of Indian Standards—to monitor the quality of products. In countries like the U.K., there are separate agencies for each product. In the space of wires and cables alone, there are 44-member teams, but the entire electrical division in India doesn’t have 44 members.

“To test our MB cable, we have to send samples to Europe,” Kabra said. Now, they will send it to the new facility of the British Approvals Service for Cables in Dubai.

Kabra has urged Union Power Minister RK Singh to look into the issue. “India, with (a) larger market share, should have more such testing labs and stringent rules and policies for quality.”

He underscored that the electrical industry and every stakeholder should focus on three important aspects of quality construction to improve the standards to the world-class level.

Firstly, each residential project must focus on quality plumbing. Secondly, electrical products should be of high quality. And third, the quality of firefighting equipment should be top-notch, according to Kabra.

He said it would not affect the cost of construction by more than Rs 40 per square feet, which is just 0.7% of the overall construction cost of Rs 6,500 per square feet—that is India’s average cost of construction of a house. Even under the PM Awas Yojana, the cost of construction is Rs 3,500 per square feet.

Short circuits account for 80% of the electrical fires, out of which 70% are due to wires and cables, and switchgear-related faults. “They are behind the walls, so cannot be detected,” Kabra said. “Hence, it’s critical to have proper testing rules for the wire and cable products manufacturers.”



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