Officials say all statutory environmental
rules, directives will be complied with
Every time a ship for scrap reaches the Steel
Industries Kerala Ltd. (SILK) unit at Azhikkal here, there are apprehensions
about environmental pollution.
And it is not likely to be any different this
time when a 1,300-tonne cargo ship has been brought to the public sector vessel
dismantling unit located on the bank of the Valapattanam river, if the concerns
aired in a section of the media are any indication.
The cargo vessel from Male reached the SILK unit
here recently for dismantling.
SILK officials have said all statutory
environmental rules and directives will be complied with before the work for
dismantling the vessel starts.
They said that this was the first vessel
brought at the unit for breaking after completion of the ship-breaking
activities amid protests by an action committee of local residents and
environmental activists a few years ago. They had then demanded its closure
saying that the ship-for-scrap work causes environmental and health hazards.
When contacted, SILK Managing Director J.
Chandrabose told The Hindu over the phone that all statutory rules and
directives from the Pollution Control Board will be complied with before the
breaking starts. The dismantling work will be done in the workshop of the unit
with roofing and concrete floor as required under the rules, he said adding
that concrete flooring ensures that not a single drop of oil or grease from the
ship reaches the waters.
The Azhikkal unit of SILK had been started
for building boats as well as breaking vessels for generating steel required
for recycling.
The public sector company is said to be
running on accumulated loss, though the Azhikkal unit is surviving with orders
for ship for scrap.
The latest order for dismantling coincides
with the attempts to secure an order from the Kerala State Water Transport Corporation
for building passenger boats. The SILK officials confided that the order is now
at the stage of tendering.
The unit can stay afloat if it gets three or
four vessels for dismantling every year, they said. Ship breaking is also for
reuse of iron used in ships, they added.
All licences
N. Mohammed, senior manager of the SILK, said
the unit has all the licences from the Pollution Control Board and the local
panchayat for carrying out its operations.
Source:
the hindu. 17 March 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment