CEE Oct-Dec 2002

development. The Chairman, then said that, in genera l the effo rt should be to see th at mini mum levels of products got upgraded commen!:>urate with the manufacturing. technological and economic feas ibi li ty and in such a way as to meet the needs of all sections or the society and all types of construction acti vities. The Char ima n, th e reafte r draw ing attentio n to th e deliberations during last few years ment ioned how opini on of CMA was sought by the Committee on the issue. when it was then noted that CMA Technical Committee could not have any unanimity. He pointed out that stil l CMA had not come out wit h any cons idered view on for or aga inst the introduction of 43 and 53 compressive strength classes in PPC and PSC. Obtaining view of CMA was to facili tate decision making by involving the consensus views of the cement industry, he said; this stalemate could however not be prolonged indefinitely. The Chairman enq uired from the CMA representative whether any conse nsus had been s ince reached. Dr. S.P. Ghosh of CMA informed the members that the .issue was discussed in CMA but no consensus has been reached yet. Membes of this Comm ittee, representing the cement industry reiterated that it was now quite clear that by and large t he indus t ry favoured (a) abolition of 33 grade OPC, and (b) introduction of higher compressive strength classes for PPC and PSC, and were also fu lly in command and position to supply these wi t h the req ui s ite qual ity control. In the light o f the above, the Committee, by consensus, decided that: a) The manufactu re and usc of OPC 33 grade shoul d be more fo r meeti ng specific b) c) d) e) f) needs in specific situations but as a national proposition, IS 269 should be phased out by BIS. Th e standa rd commo n grades ofOPC in India will henceforth be 43 grade and 53 grade conformi ng to IS 8 11 2 a nd IS 12269 respectively. As a corollary to the above, IS 1489 (Part I) for PPC an d IS 455 fo r PSC be revised to harmoni ze with 43 grade OPC. BIS Sec reta ri at was authori zed to make th e necessary revisions in the spec ifications in follow-up of the above decisions of the Committee an d issue necessary amendments and revisions in IS 269, IS 1489 (Patti ) and IS 455 and also in IS 456:2000. No tin g t hat the comprehensive exercise of com pl e te a li gnment of J nd ia n S tand ard s o n cement with th ose of EN Standards was likely to take quite some ti me, the Sec ti ona l Commi ttee requested the Panel, CEO 2: I/PI to try to effect some of the mod itications based on the provis ions of E.N standards in t he above rev is ion whi ch wou ld of cou rse take into cons ideration th e va rious draft amendments to the Cement Standards unde r process in corporati ng va ri ous prov is io ns includ ing pe rm illing use of Perfo rmance lm provers. While ali gning with EN standards, the al igned ore 33 (eq ui valent to EN 32.5) should not be confused by any one as th e same as 39 present OPC 33 in India, as OPC 33 as per EN would be made much higher in grade than the present Ind ian OPC 33. All the members of the P3nel were strongly requested to provide al l necessary co ntr ibu tions and support in the above gigantic task. ALIGNMENT OF INDIAN CEMENT STANDARDS \VITH EN STANDARDS - THE ISSUE Government of lndin has taken a pol icy decision as a follow-upa ller several meet ings of the Inte rn atio nal Orgnn isat ion r·or Standard ization quite a few years back for alignme nt of Indian Standards ofdifferent products with the European Standards. Bureau of Ind inn Standards as the implementing agency for formul ati ng standards and the ir adoption in India has been goi ng ahead for alignment of severa l Indian standards incl uding cement wi th the corresponding EN (European Norms) Standards. This is beca use cement is one of the items on which Gov t. of Ind ia offered to con form to EN Standards . S IS's work in the alignment has been go ing on w ith the he lp of several agencies inc lud ing NCB (Nat ional Council for Cement and Build ing Mate rials). Among severa l items ror a lignme nt. standardization or TAM IN sand (Tam il nadu Mi nera ls Ltd.) f'or phys ica l tcsring of cement was lingering for qu ite some time. Cement industry on the whole is not in favo ur or alignment because of several intrinsic difficu lt ies in revising or standards and also lack of compa rab ility between requi rements of cement in Europe and India. CMJ\ 's 67'" Managing Committee Meet ing exp ressed