Dry dock at Alang to check water pollution:

The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) is in the process of setting up a dry dock at Alang Sosiya ship-breaking yard to, in part, arrest pollution of the water there.

An Expression of Interest (EoI) for the project has been floated and a top official said Japanese technology would most likely be used.

S C Mathur, Chief Nautical Officer at GMB, said the paint off a ship’s bottom corrodes after being left in the water while being dismantled, thus leaking toxic material into the water.

The dry dock would lift the ship out of the water and prevent this leakage.

Further, when workers dismantle the ship on the dry dock, there would be less chances of the material spilling into the water. This will check pollution from such slips and spills of material, Mathur added.

Earlier, the board had upset shipowners and cargo handlers by insisting that all ships coming into Gujarat’s ports provide details of the latest insurance premiums paid, and disallowed ships without them from entering.

GMB officials had affected this “polluter pays” mechanism because they reasoned, from past experiences, that the board would end up paying crores of rupees for clean-up operations in the even of a spill in case the ships did not have insurance cover.

Source: Indian Express. Adam Halliday. Wed Feb 02 2011
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/dry-dock-at-alang-to-check-water-pollution/744977/