First I urge you to read this brave article. It is poignant and powerful. If you love Vizag please pass it on
My take:
For those of us who schooled and grew up in Vizag the news that the port wants to expand Northward is a horror movie still unfolding.
Only problem is that this is not just a scary yarn, we are not going for a popcorn break - its a chilling possibility - and if Vizag's gentle population are silent - a certainty.
The "One Town" or "Soldierpeta" area was where Vizag's 
heart was. The Jalaris along with the local community defined quintessential Vizag.
Then the Iron Ore arrived, crossing over the area on Japanese funded, conveyor belts.
The Port authorities said that the ore moving on the belt would be constantly sprinkled with water and entire belt would be sealed and no dust would escape.
We were too young then to know much about industrial pollution. Vizagites were also somewhat trusting and naive, they still are. "How wonderful", "what great development" we thought.
How gullible we were! I wish I could go back in time and kick myself in my posterior.
Soon everyone under this brown-dust spewing contraption shifted North. Save a few die hard Soldierpeta residents - who then proceeded, over time, to go to their graves - coughing. They say that in the dead of night you can still hear ghosts coughing in Soldierpeta! 
But we were silent. We were not the complaining type.
Later the Port expanded further - the outer harbor, the coal jetty, the great big stocking yards! Some folk's chests filled with pride ... (and some coal dust too in the bargain ).
An evil black dust spread through the city. The guys who left one town did not notice it at first. The dust spread insidiously to Kota Veedhi and One Town. Folks got respiratory problems, kids got sick,and my old school, the 150 years old St. Aloysius, was covered with coal dust. Soon the classes did not need black boards - they could write on the coal covered walls! (Joke )
The huge Banyan trees, teeming with life, that stood around the Recruiting Office were chopped off.
The large British heritage-rich stone buildings were torn down and ugly tenement housing was built with dozens of families crammed into small spaces and their sewage fouling the area. The old light house that defined Vizag went into oblivion. The whole area rapidly became a slum. Vizag's heart was being torn out!
Yet we were silent.
No one complained. "We need progress! We need coal! The thermal plants must run! We need electricity!" they said. The portbrought in plenty of coal, so much in fact that mountains of coal were stacked everywhere. Soon coal dust, wafted by winds, had reached Gyanapuram, Maharinipeta, Suryabagh and as far as Ramakrishna Beach. In August, apartments near the submarine museum, complained of coal dust on their floors and on their drying clothes lines.
When people grumbled gently, the port said "Pollution? What Pollution?'
And we were silent again.
Then the buzz from the effected became louder.
The Port said "Ah, don't worry, be happy, we have everything under control.
We have technological solutions. We will sprinkle water on the coal and build walls around them".
"How wise they are" we thought and we all collectively shut up again.
Only hitch was - the coal stacks were 40 feet high and the sprinklers reached less than 10 feet. And most of the sprinklers did not work. As remarkable ingenious technology, instead of those promised high walls the port put up casurina poles and tied green and blue plastic sheets to it. The first gust of wind took off those sheeting and we were back at square one.
Then having traveled the world's great ports, the engineers said "We will mechanize! modernise! minimize! But we need more space!
No one asked them as to why they could not first mechanise and modernise the EXISTING coal yards? What a stupid question!
Meanwhile the APPCB who are meant to safeguard the public, quietly covered themselves under stacks of paperwork and went into hiding.
They are tough with small industry but when it comes to large industry they scurry away at a mere sound of "Boo", even a small little "boo" will do.
Now the port wants more place for "stacking". They want to move North. Incidentally no one seems to have asked them "stacking what?". Just another stupid question. They want the Fishing Harbor to move to Bimuli and they want to stack their coal all the way till Coastal Battery! Incompetence and negligence may even be rewarded with more space.
The public meanwhile gets lead up a garden path.
Press notes from the VPT gets lapped up by the print media and printed verbatim.
No one questions this monstrous entity, this dragon at our door step.
"What?" Some newshounds will ask "You want our advertising revenue stream to dry up? Who dares take on large organisations?
And we, the public, are kept ignorant and are blissfully silent!
What do you think will happen to Vizag and its residents?
And this includes the suited booted new arrivals who are hell bent on developing Vizag to death!
The upper crust of society, in the upper crust part of town, and you know who I am talking about, are soon also going down with respiratory diseases, gasping between each swig of beer.
(Considering that we are obese and unhealthy anyway, we will certainly be more more vulnerable! )
I am exaggerating you say? I declare that seeing is believing.
If you are traveling to Chennai by air take the "F" seat and on your way back from Chennai take the "A" seat.
If you are traveling to Hyderabad take the "A" set on the way out and "F" seat on the way back.
At first marvel at our beautiful city, the azure bay, the fishing boats and the queued up ships, as the plane arcs its way over the sea during landing and take off.
Then keep the barf/puke bag handy and look at the port area through your window.
You will see the dirty black cancerous smear defining the entire port area!
As a bonus as you arrive from Chennai see the Gangavaram Port with its huge stacks of coal. Why are the stacks there? Why has the importer not picked it up? Who is asking the questions?
Better still, take a drive in the port area - enjoy the black and brown landscape - turn off your AC and bring down the car window - breathe it all in! Wonderful wonderful Coal (sounds like a musical title) and Iron dust laced with a cocktail of other unmentionables minerals! It is a heady mix indeed! Something to die for!
After returning from the drive look at the bottom of your car - its like getting a new paint job!
We hear that Ports in advanced countries have coal storing and handling machinery that does not pollute.
Why cannot our port emulate them?
Is there a competency issue? Is a finance issue?
Is it because the cost of the facility is too high?
Will it add to the cost of the commodity?
Is that additional cost cheaper than the effects the pollution is having on us?
Can it balance out the lives lost by inhaling coal dust day and night for years on end?
Are we just a apathetic lot who don't know when we are in trouble?
Are people investing in the dust masks industry?
I hope not.
Regards,
Sohan
The views expressed here are my own - the stupid humor indicated by the smiley face is mine alone - don't shoot anyone.
Comments
Will you please tell me where is this picture from?