MediaVigil, Journal of Global Communications and Justice

1. 88 ships beach at Alang without any safety certificate NEW DELHI: Even as interested parties have approached the Supreme Court for clarification on its orders on shipbreaking safety norms, 88 ships have illegally beached at Alang in Gujarat without prior decontamination or requisite safety certificates. The court, in its order in September 2007, had ordered that all ships being beached in India should compulsorily carry the "Certificates for Gas Free for Hot Work". Even as these "dead" ships beach at Alang, various government agencies involved in the issue and the ship recyclers’ association have gone back to the apex court seeking clarifications on its orders. Another clarification has been sought by the original applicant in the case, Gopalkrishna. The ship recyclers’ association wants the safety norms prescribed by the court in its 2007 order, which itself was a reiteration of an earlier 2003 order, to be modified and the norms eased. The Petroleum and Explosi...

US Ship Broker, Chinese company & gullible Indian authorities allow Illegal Export of 'Toxic Time bomb’ Connivance facilitates entry of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) laden MV Oceanic in Indian waters New Delhi April 26, 2008–A ship named MV Oceanic (SS Independence) against which the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has filed suit has beached itself in Alang according to sources from the shipbreaking yard. A well-known "cashbuyer" who is a US citizen of Indian origin routinely buys ships from all over the world and sends them to the notorious breaking beaches of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. Indian Supreme Court’s order of September 6 and September 11, 2007 has created more loopholes than were pre-existing, thus opening floodgates for dubious ships to enter Indian waters endangering both environmental and national security. It is appalling to note that quite unlike US EPA Gujarat Pollution Control Board and Gujarat Maritime Board in a manifest case of...

Some 88 'dead ships' have beached at Alang in contravention of Supreme Court orders. The intelligence report mentions that the regulations allow such ships innocent passage through the entire stretch of Indian waters unscrutinized by the security agencies. Besides environmental security, national security also seems to be a casualty. These ships include the following: 1. VLORA M.V. beached in Alang on 25th-Dec-2007 in the plot no. 84 of Diamond Industries Ship Breaking Div. Owned by Ajay Jain 2. LEE M.V. beached in Alang on 28th-Nov-2007in the plot no. 84 A of Lucky Steel Industries owned by Arif Masani 3. SEE HOPE M.V. beached in Alang on 26th-Oct-2007 in the plot no. 88 of Atam Manohar Ship Breakers Pvt. Ltd owned by Munshiram Jain 4. AGIOS ISIDOROS M.V. beached in Alang on 26th-Feb-2008 in the plot no. 91 of K.P.G. Enterprises owned by Rakesh Bansal 5. BOTSMAN MPSHKOV M.V. beached in Alang on 4th-May-2007 in the plot no. 1 of Bansal International Ltd. 6. BERGE ARROW M.V. bea...

AHMEDABAD: The hands that used to work on mammoth ocean liners and crude carriers and generated revenues worth Rs 80,000 crore till 2008 in one of the largest ship-breaking yards, have deserted it. Alang Ship Breaking Yard, on Gujarat’s Bhavnagar coast, which until 2004 could boast of being one of the biggest employers of migrant labour, has lost its men to other clusters as it lost business to Bangladesh. Over a period of four years, numbers have dwindled from 40,000 to about 5,000 migrant labourers. Ever since Alang breached its first vessel — MV Kota Tenjong — in 1983, it drew migrant labourers from Mumbai, Orissa, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. Alang beached 4,539 ships between 1983 and 2008 and handled tonnage to the tune of 3,19,89400 LDT (light displacement tonnage). Between 1996 and 2004, whenever large supertankers, container ships or passenger carriers were beached at Alang, it used to resemble a honeycomb with hundreds of manual labourers buzzing around the ships; dismantling the...

Union steel ministry has taken a decision to make the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) mark mandatory for scrap and manufacturing, sales, stock and distribution of steel. All the scrap without the BIS mark should have to be demolished within 6 months. Also, manufacturing, sales, stock and distribution of steel and scrap without the mark would be banned after May 13th 2008. This is required as per the new norms of the Steel & Steel Product Quality Control 2007. BIS mark for scrap may spoil Alang`s silver jubilee party Khyati Joshi / Mumbai/ Rajkot April 15, 2008 Worried industry to take up the issue with Centre. The steel ministry�s decision to make the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) mark mandatory for scrap and manufacturing, sales, stock and distribution of steel may affect the Asia's largest shipbreaking yard at Alang, which is celebrating its silver jubilee this year. At a time when there are some positive signs for the shipbreaking yard, the Centre's decision may dama...

The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) met from 31 March to 4 April, at the Royal Horticultural Halls, London to finalize and approve amendments to the MARPOL Annex VI regulations to reduce harmful emissions from ships, at its 57th session . The Committee's agenda included the current draft of a proposed ship recycling convention and issues relating to the implementation of the 2004 Ballast Water Management Convention. It was clear after the 4th April, 2008 that the shipowners in OECD countries who are using small countries like Liberia and Tuvalu to circumvent international and national laws that prevent them from sending dead toxic ships loaded with hazardous chemicals for dismantling to developing countries, such as India can continue in the business as usual fashion . A Navel Intelligence report has raised the issue of security threat arising from unregulated shipbreaking in India. This has not merited the attentio...

The state government is banking on a special purpose vehicle to revive the world’s biggest ship-breaker Bangalore: Under pressure from the country’s apex court to ensure a safe and environment-friendly ship recycling facility at Alang in Gujarat, the state government is banking on a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to revive the world’s biggest ship breaking yard and make it cleaner. Infrastructure issues: Alang ship-breaking yard in Gujurat. The Supreme Court last year had asked the state government to modernize the yard. The SPV will take on the task of restoring the Alang yard to its earlier status as the world’s top ship-breaker. It will develop and operate the facility in a private-public partnership. Currently, ship-breaking at these yards is monitored by the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), the state regulator that is also vested with developing infrastructure through private investments. The SPV seeks to separate GMB’s regulatory functions from its commercial activities. “We want to ...