National Test House Undergoing Major Transformations: Govt

With major initiatives being taken by the government, the National Test House is set to transform into a future ready organisation that is equipped with proper and adequate testing facilities for the goods and services.

Briefing Media about the Modernisation activities in testing infrastructure being undertaken by NTH, Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs Nidhi Khare said that PM Gatishakti portal is being leveraged to identify gaps in testing infrastructure in the country and efforts are to subsequently fill those gaps to promote Ease of Doing Business.

She further said government is also reaching out to industry associations, manufacturing associations to seek their inputs and contribute in making of Atma Nirbhar Bharat by building a robust Testing ecosystem.

Chennai branch of NTH has developed a state-of-art testing facility for simulation of Lightning Impulse (upto 1400 KVP), Switching Impulse (upto 1050 KVP) & Current Impulse (upto 10kA). This equipment is used for assessment of the sustainability of Transmission Line Equipments prone to Lightning Strikes and Switching Surges during their operation. The facility will be available for the service to the nation from January, 2023.

NTH is striving to establish world class scientific laboratory system and for ease of users i.e., consumers, NTH has introduced a fully digital Laboratory Management Information System (LIMS). Now, consumers can get their product sample tested from any part of the country by sending samples through courier, booking the required tests online, submitting payment online and get the test results online, even by using mobile phone. By using sample tracking, they may also monitor the testing time and position of their samples.

The new MIS used by all Regional laboratories of NTH is enhancing the operational efficiency of the laboratory by automating and streamlining the workflows, eliminating the need for maintaining information manually, which in turn is minimising the testing time and increasing the overall laboratory capacity.

To boost up quality testing of food products in North Eastern states, Guwahati branch of NTH has developed a Microbiology laboratory where testing of drinking water and different type of spices will be conducted. The facility will be available for the service to the nation from January, 2023.

While inaugurating ‘One Nation, One Fertiliser’ scheme, our Prime Minister said that this scheme will ensure affordable quality fertiliser of Bharat brand to the farmers. NTH will undertake quality testing of fertilisers as third referee analysis with Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India. 67 scientists from all NTH laboratories dealing with testing of fertiliser samples have attended training programme in fertiliser quality control and analysis at Central Fertilizer Quality Control and Training Institute, Faridabad.

To support the PM Gati Shakti Mission, initiated by Prime Minister in respect of the Technological Development of the Nation, NTH is working on a plan to establish a state-of-art “Transformer testing facility” at Jaipur, Rajasthan. At present, most of the transformer manufacturers that are located in Northern India mostly in Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, have to transport their transformers to ERDA, Vadodara & CPRI Bhopal/Bangalore for Short Circuit & other tests which involve a lot of time and huge transportation cost and which may lead to delay in projects. This test facility is being created at the hub of transformer industry which will cater to the demand of north and western part of the country and will reduce the transportation cost and time taken in getting transformer samples tested. This will reduce the present queuing time in testing of transformers from months to a few days supporting power generation and distribution networks in the country. Also, there was a continuous demand from the manufacturer’s side for setting up of Short Circuit Laboratory at National Test House, Jaipur since a long time which will be met supporting the power generation and distribution ecosystem in North-Western India.

The NTH labs are equipped with full parameter potable water testing. The method is also being extended to river water environmental testing and sampling to support availability of portable drinking water in  most States.