The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) on February 16, 2021 has issued the Boiler Operation Rules, 2021. They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.
The following provisions have been made:
• The owner of a single boiler or two or more boilers connected in a battery or of many separate individual boilers situated within a radius of fifty meters having a total heating surface exceeding one thousand square meters in any of the cases shall not use the same or permit the same to be used unless the boiler or boilers are placed in direct charge of a competent person specified in rule 4 in addition to such number of boiler attendants as specified in these rules.
• Any person, who does not possess a certificate of proficiency as a Boiler Operation Engineer under these rules, shall not be deemed to be a fit and proper person to hold the charge of any boiler or boilers exceeding the limits as laid down in rule 3.
• A Boiler Operation Engineer holding a certificate of proficiency under these rules shall, at all reasonable times during the period any boiler is in his charge or attendance, be bound to produce such certificate when called upon to do so by any of the persons empowered under section 15 to call for the production of a certificate or provisional order granted under the Act.
• The owner of a boiler who engages any person to be incharge thereof, shall within seven days of such engagement furnish to the Chief Inspector or Director of Boilers, as the case may be, the full particulars of such person including the serial number, date and place of issue of his certificate.
• A person who is in-charge of a boiler shall be deemed to be in direct and immediate charge of the same when he is physically present within hundred meters of such boiler.
• A boiler shall be deemed to be in use for the purpose of these rules when there is fire in the furnace fire box or fire place for the purpose of heating the water in the boiler or under banked fire condition.
• Examination for the grant of certificates of proficiency as a Boiler Operation Engineer shall be conducted by the Committee or any agency authorised by it in this behalf at such places and on such dates as decided by the Committee from time to time.
• When a date fixed for the examination is declared as a gazetted holiday or when for any unforeseen reason the examination cannot be held on the date fixed, the Chairman may fix some other date for holding the examination and the same shall be duly intimated to the candidates and the members of the Committee of Examiners.
• The certificate of proficiency as a Boiler Operation Engineer shall qualify the holder thereof to be incharge of a boiler or boilers of any type and size provided that the boilers are so situated that none of them is at a distance of more than fifty meters radius from any one of them.
• A certificate of proficiency as a Boiler Operation Engineer granted to a candidate by any Committee shall be valid all over the India provided that a person holding a certificate of proficiency as a Boiler Operation Engineer shall give the intimation through on-line mode including by e-mail to the Chief Inspector or Director of Boilers of the concerned Government in which he or she applies for services or in case of change of services from one State to another.
[Notification No. G.S.R. 115 (E)]
