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The importance of ship breaking as a
potential source of raw material for the re-rollers was recognized in early
80’s. As a result, import of ships for breaking was accelerated. Prior to 1979
the Ship Breaking activities in India was limited to breaking of barges, small
sized ships and casualty ships. It was concentrated in two major parts namely
Mumbai and Calcutta.
Due to increase in trend of import of ships for breaking in India, an emphasis
was laid to examine various sites suitable for this activity. Amongst various
methods of Ship Breaking, the beaching method depends on skilful harnessing of
zero cost tidal energy at sheltered coastal locations and warrants the least
capital investment. Considering the favorable parameters for beaching method
like high tidal range, firm seabed, gentle seaward slope etc., it was decided to
set-up a ship breaking yard on the western coast of Gulf of Cambay near Alang
village. The first vessel – MV KOTA TENJONG was beached at Alang on 13th Feb.
1983. Since then, the yard has witnessed spectacular growth and has emerged as a
leading ship Breaking Yard in the world.
Breaking of ships on such a large scale would obviously necessitate extensive
care on issues like physical and social infrastructure, worker safety and
welfare, environment management, establishment of down stream and ancillary
industries etc. These involve not only the financial resources but also many
others influencing factors viz. proper knowledge base, compatibility of mindset
between workers and the ship recyclers, availability of land and negotiation
skills for legal issues. GMB as a regulator has put in sincere efforts to
develop above requirements to accelerate the growth of this industry.
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Alang Ship Breaking
