A global bottle manufacturer has been fined £600,000 after a worker at its Alloa plant sustained severe burns from molten glass and hot water.

The accident took place at the O-I Glass facility in Alloa while the worker was operating a loading vehicle in February 2024.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said the 32-year-old employee suffered 8 per cent burns to his body but went on to make a full recovery.

HSE said the “avoidable ordeal” need not have happened if a protective door had been fitted to the vehicle.

The site employs around 500 people and is used for smelting glass into bottles.

As part of this process, rejected molten glass is poured into skips in the basement along with hot water.

On the day of the accident, the worker was operating a shovel loader, clearing the waste molten glass and hot water from the basement floor.

However, there was no protective door on the cab of the vehicle, so some of the materiel spilled on the worker, who has not been named.

The company was fined £600,000 at Stirling Sheriff Court on 23 September, after admitting breaching health and safety legislation.

HSE inspector Kathy Gostick said: “This was an avoidable ordeal for a young worker. It is sheer luck he has been able to recover from his serious injuries.

“This company’s employees worked in this environment with a safety-critical part of the loader missing for a period of almost two years.

“Although the protective front door had been removed and reported to the on-site engineer, drivers had continued to work and operate the loader with it missing.

“Some operatives even described being struck or having footwear burnt by molten glass falling into the cab as a result.”

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She continued: “When work equipment is being selected, its suitability for the environment it is going to be used in must be risk assessed.

“In this case the protective door was not suitable to protect against impacts from hot and molten glass and therefore was often broken and in the end never replaced. Had an appropriate door been selected and maintained in place this accident would not have occurred.”

A spokesman for the company said: “O-I Glass Limited appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court in relation to a health and safety matter at its Alloa facility.

“The company accepted responsibility and co-operated fully and openly with the investigating authorities and the court. Legal proceedings have now concluded.

“O-I acted swiftly in implementing enhanced measures and is committed to maintaining the highest safety standards at all times across its operations.”

New Delhi: The Mumbai real estate market continued its upward trajectory this year, recording 1,11,388 property registrations between January to September — up 5.5 per cent from 1,05,607 units in the same period last year, a report said on Tuesday. 

According to the latest Inspector General of Registration (IGR) data, 2025 is setting new benchmarks in both property registrations and government revenues, underlining the sector’s resilience and growing significance in India’s economy.

The January-September registration was up 18.1 per cent from 94,307 in 2023.

“When compared with pre-pandemic activity, the scale of growth is even more striking. Registrations in 2025 are more than double the 2019 level (50,045, up 122.6 per cent) and nearly four times the 2020 level (28,822, up 286.6 per cent), when the market was deeply impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak,” Anarock Group said in its latest report, citing IGR data.

Meanwhile, the stamp duty and registration fee collections mirrored this surge in registrations.

In the first nine months of this year, revenues touched a record Rs 10,094.22 crore, surpassing the previous high of Rs 8,876.42 crore in 2024.

This represents a 13.7 per cent increase year-on-year, and a dramatic fivefold rise of 421 per cent compared to 2020 (Rs 1,937.32 crore) during the pandemic slump, the report highlighted.

“This sustained growth is due to a combination of robust housing demand, accelerated infrastructure development, premium project launches, and stable policy frameworks. With 2025 already surpassing the Rs 10,000 crore milestone in just nine months, the year is firmly on track to become the most successful year ever for property registrations and collections,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Group.

The sustained performance points toward a structurally stronger real estate market, driven by both end-users and investors, setting the stage for continued expansion in the years ahead, he added.

The IGR data underscored the real estate sector’s remarkable recovery over the past few years.

In 2019–2020, Registrations and revenues dipped sharply due to the pandemic. In 2021, Market revival began with 86,072 registrations and revenues exceeding Rs 4,252 crore.

The growth continued in 2022 as the revenues crossed the Rs 6,600 crore mark, up 55 per cent from 2021. Further, between 2023–2025, the market not only stabilised but surged, breaking records.