The ministry
of ports, shipping and waterways has requested a 60% increase in budgetary
allocation to expand ship recycling capacity at the Alang ship breaking yard.

A detailed
presentation on how higher allocations will help achieve the government’s goal
of doubling ship recycling capacity at Alang was made to the finance ministry,
said senior officials in the ministry, according to a report by Moneycontrol.

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In the previous
budget, the government announced a doubling of the ship recycling capacity at
Alang to around 4.5 million light displacement tonnes (LDT) by 2024.

In the
Budget for FY22, an amount of Rs 100 crore was allocated to help in
shipbuilding, research and development.

Due to the
outbreak of the second wave of the pandemic, much work was not undertaken for
capacity expansion at Alang, the world’s largest shipbreaking yard.

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In the last
nine months, Alang’s capacity utilisation increased to the highest in five
years. Due to the pandemic, cruise ship owners were forced to sell their
vessels, some of which found their way to Alang for scrapping.

According to
the Ship Recycling Industries Association of India, around 2.6 million LDT
had been handled at Alang so far in FY22 as compared to 1.63 million LDT
handled in FY20 and 2 million LDT handled in FY21, as reported by MoneyControl.

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The
government wants to add 15 new plots to the existing capacity at Alang and
operationalize these by 2024, said senior officials.

By
installing modern equipment and investing in technological advancements,
attempts would be made to draw European and Japanese ship owners to send their
vessels to Alang for recycling, officials said.

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The number
of vessels coming for dismantling has declined in the past decade because
European companies were not sending ships to India due to concerns over
non-compliance with global standards on pollution and protection of human and
marine life.  According to officials, 90 yards at Alang are now certified
for compliance with international standards for green recycling. Alang has
around 160 plots, of which around 140 are used for shipbreaking activities
while the other plots are mainly used for storage.