GANDHINAGAR: The Alang ship-breaking yard in Bhavnagar on the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat is back in controversy. The State-owned Gujarat Maritime Board, which manages the ship-breaking yard and has given on lease plots of land in Alang to the ship-breakers, and the Alang Ship Recycling Industries Association are not even aware that another asbestos-laden ship has set sail for the Bhavnagar coast.
"The GMB is not in the picture, it will be for the Supreme Court to decide whether such a ship can be brought to Alang for breaking," the GMB manager in-charge of Alang, M.M. Khatri, said.
A couple of months ago, the Clemenceau, a French de-commissioned aircraft carrier carrying about 450 tonnes of asbestos, was recalled by the French Government after the controversy surrounding the facilities available at Alang for handling hazardous materials.
Both Mr. Khatri and the Association joint secretary, Nitin Kanakiya, claimed that they came to know from newspaper reports quoting Greenpeace activists that SS Norway, better known as Blue Lady, was on its way to Alang from Malaysia carrying at least 900 tonnes of asbestos for breaking.
Mr. Kanakiya said he was not even aware if any Alang-based consortium had bought the ship, claimed to be the second largest in the world after the ill-fated Titanic. He, however, said that if the ship was carrying 900 tonnes of asbestos as claimed, it would be in violation of the Basal convention and must be cleaned before it was docked at Alang.
But handling the ship even with 900 tonnes of asbestos would be no problem for Alang, Mr. Khatri pointed out. The GMB has only last month commissioned the hazardous material disposal facilities at Alang which can handle at least 50,000 tonnes of asbestos besides other hazardous materials. "Nine hundred tonnes is nothing even if the ship comes uncleaned at Alang," Mr. Khatri said.
The authorities have provided necessary training to the Alang workers in handling the hazardous materials and arranged for adequate safety equipment. In addition, it has also planned "outsourcing" handling of the hazardous materials to some agencies having expertise in such jobs before handing the ship over to Alang.
But all the exercise will come into effect only after the Supreme Court issued the necessary directive for berthing ships carrying hazardous materials at Alang.
Following the Clemenceau controversy, the apex court appointed a 15-member committee of experts, including Central Government officials for reviewing the facilities at Alang.
The committee visited Alang on May 2 and 3 and, according to Mr. Khatri, expressed "satisfaction" over the facilities at Alang. The committee is expected to submit its report to the Supreme Court shortly after which it would issue a directive about the Blue Lady or any other ship carrying hazardous materials for breaking at Alang.
If cleared by the Court, the ship would also be required to secure clearance from the customs, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board and other agencies involved.
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