WORLD DAY FOR SAFETY & HEALTH AT WORK- 28 April 2009

The International Labour Organization marks its World day for Safety and Health at work on 28th April every year. World day is an international campaign to promote safe, healthy and decent work all over the world. We celebrated this day at Saud Bahwan Group with a series of events which included administration of the 'safety pledge', display of safety banners/posters at prominent locations, exhibition of safety equipment and a full fledged mock evacuation drill.

Similiar programmes were conducted at all our branches/sub locations all over Oman. The event evoked a lot of enthusiasm and was celebrated with wholehearted participation by all the employees. Following are some photos clicked on the occasion :

A poster at the 'Security Control Room'

Administration of the Safety pledge at Toyota Service.
Safety pledge ceremony at the Security Control Room

'Samosas' after the event (courtesy Deepak)

Safety & Security team after the mock drill

Facility Physical Security Management - Best Facility

By the end of March I had visited all the company facilities at various places all over Oman. There are hundreds of properties of varying sizes and functions at different locations viz : showrooms, warehouses, vehicle yards, workshops etc. The best facility from the physical security point of view, in my opinion, is a warehouse, the pictures of which are appended below.

The entry/exit gate with remote controlled dual

barriers for vehicular traffic. Personnel and visitor

entry is through the security control room at the

left which contains all the access control systems.

The boundary wall (9 feet) with a chain link fence

topped with barbed wire(3 feet) running

all around the facility.Hydrant pipes along the boundary wall with outlets

at various places. All outlets have a box with two

hose reels and a branch pipe/nozzle.A view of the warehouse from outside. Protective

lighting all around is with metal halide lamps which

have a long life and replicate sunlight best

(these are the types used at sports stadiums). Overground hydrant pipes and lighting poles can be

seen in this photo. Underground water pipes do not

last long owing to the high salt content in the soil.Drain holes along the boundary wall secured

with a tamper proof wire mesh.

In addition to the above the facility has an excellent fire prevention and fire fighting system consisting of dual water tanks with dual fire pumps. A fire alarm system, sprinkler system, manual call points, alarm bells outside at regular intervals, break glass units etc. This is one facility which I found conforming to most of the principles of facility physical security management.

Internet Connection - At Last !!

At long last I got my broadband connection through Omantel a couple of days back. I had applied for the same on 19 January 2009. This was made possible by some intense follow up by my colleagues in our telecon dept as well as some lobbying by friends. While I was cribbing about this state of affairs to the guys who had come to install the peripherals, all the response I could elicit was "Mabrook" ( which means "मुबारक हो !" or "Congratulations"). It seems folks who had applied for a home connection as far back in August 2008 are yet to get it.

The ADSL modem (which I had to purchase by paying cash) cost 26 Rials (or Rs 3380/-), installation cost is 10 Rials and the monthly rental is 12 Rials. Wait, the best is yet to come, the icing on the cake is the free download/upload I get. I am entitled to a grand 1 GB of free download/upload per MONTH !! Yes, you read that right - 1GB per month. Beyond that I will be charged at 1 Rial per GB of download/upload. Even e-mail attachments count towards this.

The other fantastic discovery I made is that a host of websites are blocked (not just the 'pondy' ones, which can be expected). Voice over Internet Telephony (VoIP) sites like 'skype' are also blocked (there go my dreams of anticipated long chats with my better half !)

Some friends here who are enjoying this luxury tell me that their bills are in the range of 30 Rials per month if they behave themselves and refrain from spending too much time on the net.

All this is thanks to the monopoly of the sole service provider. Well, since beggars cannot be choosers, here I am, blogging from the cosy confines of my residence. It is better than trudging to the nearest cyber cafe, waiting for my turn on the PC and finally paying the exhorbitant fee and counting my steps back.

Birthday Bash !!

On 31st March I took my colleagues out for lunch and did not let it out that it was my birthday. We went to a restuarant nearby and one of the guys who knew let the cat out of the bag (the bum !!). Well, after lunch we came back to office and went about our business as usual. I got a call at 5.00 PM to reach the Security Control Room (my office being a short distance away) asap. Imagine my surprise when I saw everyone gathered over there waiting for me to cut the cake (which they had arranged at short notice). I was overwhelmed and my day was made ! I enjoyed every minute that day.
I would also like to thank all my friends and well wishers who had sent me e-cards, mails, wished me on this blog, sent me SMSs and even called me up. A big THANK YOU to all you folks.
Following are some pics which were shot on that day.

Settling down for lunch at TFC (not to be confused

with KFC) - Trivandrum Fried Chicken ! Howzzat ?

Fareed, self, Paresh, Santosh, Mahfoodh (hidden),
Nashib, Deepak and Ismail.

At the office after hogging the cake.

Santosh (hidden), Mahfoodh, Nashib, self,

Paresh and Deepak

Khalid, Ismail, Santosh and me.