Some $76m in Japanese overseas aid could pave the way for India to ratify the international Hong Kong convention by bringing smaller shipbreaking yards up to agreed environmental standards.
Alang breaking yards have borrowed the money from state-backed Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as part of a wider $111m project to upgrade the region's beaching yards.
As TradeWinds has reported, the Gujarat Maritime Board has ordered all of Alang’s breakers to fit impermeable floors by July 2018 or face possible closure.
An impermeable floor is a critical safety measure for beaching yards, preventing pollutants entering the beach as well as providing a firm base for cutting.
Rohit Agarwal, an Alang-based consultant who is helping local yards to meet the standards set out in the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC), says the funding will help Alang's small yards that have limited resources.
The JICA funding "provided financial support to recyclers which have not been able to work on upgrading”, Agarwal said.
“The JICA support will bring the whole of Alang forward and further establish India in the top league of quality shiprecyclers,” he added.
The terms of the HKC require a major shipbreaking country to ratify it and bring it into force, and the JICA funds will allow the Indian government to do so without damaging the competitiveness of its domestic shipbreaking industry.
“Active support for upgrading shiprecycling will result in the establishment of HKC standards," Agarwal said. "This will reduce concerns with regards to the ratification of the convention.
"This includes shipping countries, which are reluctant to ratify when there is not sufficient compliant recycling capacity available.
"Also, resistance from recyclers will decline when they see compliance does not conflict with market realities and competitiveness.”
If Alang breakers reach HKC compliance, it will give them a significant commercial edge over rivals in Pakistan and Bangladesh that have made little progress towards improving standards.
However, it is unlikely to satisfy environmentalists such as NGO Shipbreaking Platform, which claims any form of demolition on a beach is environmentally harmful.
