To conscientiously implement the central leaders’ instructions, and to implement the work deployment of national video and telephone conference on safe production, the office of Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development has recently made an announcement and required all regions to conscientiously improve safe production management work, and promote the safe production in urban and rural housing construction system.

According to the announcement, housing and urban-rural construction administration departments of all regions should strengthen the sense of line and fully put in place responsibility for safe production. We should always give top priority to people’s lives and security, and stick to the red line that development must not be at the cost of human life; We should have a clear view of the severe situation at the stage of rapid industrialization and urbanization, which is accident prone, and enhance the sense of responsibility and urgency; We should follow the principle that safety must be taken into consideration while supervising industries, business, production and trade, and strengthen organization and leadership of safe production; We should speed up the innovation and reform of safety supervision system, and put in great effort on implementation of existing system; We should reinforce the construction of grass-root law enforcement forces, so as to enhance the effectiveness of work. Enterprises related to the field of urban and rural housing construction should conscientiously perform their responsibility as the subject of safe production; in particular, they should shoulder main responsibility such as troubleshooting and administration of work safety, prevention and early treatment of accident.

The announcement also asks all regions to strengthen planning and management, and take security as the preconditions of urban planning and construction. Before the preparation of the master plan, we should assess the support capacity and construction conditions of infrastructure, and carry out specific research on the key elements influencing urban safe production, including land, water, energy and environment. We should improve the urban capacity of disaster-prevention through perfecting urban land-use risk assessment and security layout, plans of anti-disaster equipment, and plans of emergency access and emergency shelters in the urban disaster-prevention planning. We should take urban security as the important content in review and audit of plans such as overall urban planning and planning of new urban district and development zones.

The announcement also makes it clear that all regions should strengthen the supervision and law enforcement of construction market, guarantee engineering quality and safety, strengthen construction safety supervision, and resolutely curb serious accidents. We should strictly investigate and deal with violations of statutory construction process, such as illegal subcontracting, subcontract and affiliation, surround-bidding and forging bid and other illegal activities in the market, and exposure them through the national construction market integrity information platform. We should reinforce the dynamic supervision of qualification, and further implement the “one vote veto” system of security responsibility, and bring the safe production related indicators into the market access standards. We should improve the linkage system of construction sites and construction market, strictly investigate and deal with illegal activities and unit and personal responsible for quality-related and safety-related accidents according to law, and lead to build up market mechanisms which encourage keeping credit motivation and punish breaking disciplines.

At the same time, we should focus on affordable housing projects and urban rail transportation, urge construction enterprises to strengthen on-site safety management, carefully troubleshoot security breaches in sections such as deep excavation project, tunnels’ supporting structures, construction cranes, and tall template, and effectively prevent the occurrence of major accidents and that of above levels. We should continue to carry out special safe construction regulations which prevent incidents such as collapse of construction cranes and formwork supporting system, and continue to promote the “punishing and regulating illegal deeds” initiatives. We should reinforce the supervision and examination of key regions, key industries and key projects, and increase the reporting, investigation and punishment of accidents.

The announcement stressed that we should strengthen supervision of municipal facilities’ safety to ensure that municipal facilities operate safely and stably. We should reinforce supervision of safe house using and prevent accidents concerning house use. We should improve supervision of construction safety of countries and towns to enhance the safety of their construction. During the Spring Festival and the “NPC and CPPCC” period, all regions should further strengthen security, supervision, and adopt the “Four Nos and Two Directs” approach on the practical basis (no notice, no warning, no reporting, no accompanying and reception, went direct to the grass-roots level, direct to the scene) to conduct security checks, resolutely eliminate actions as careless rushing production for time limit, timely get rid of hidden fault in municipal facilities to prevent security incidents. Put into practice the responsibility system for emergency duty; unblock information channels, and guarantee the backup of emergency response teams and material to ensure that emergencies can be promptly and properly handled.

(Excerpted from China Construction News)