The Science of Urinals

First please read the article in The Hindu with headline: "Anrak in talks with Glencore to source bauxite ore?" at the following link.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/article2760124.ece

If APMDC mines Jerrala and supply Bauxite to Anrak here is what we can expect.

TRANSPORTATION NIGHTMARE

The ANRAK website has this sentence at the end of it: "A newly laid road is envisaged which will be traveling for 15 km in forest land starting from Jerrela village to the state highway near Pederu. From there it is connected to NH5 for onward movement to the proposed plant location."

I could not figure out how they will reach Makavaripalem from Chintapalle via Paderu and NH5. This is like going to Delhi from Mumbai via Chennai. Instead, it is obvious that they will come down via Lambasinghi and take a left before  Narasipatnam. I understand that they have already started making a road diagonally from a few kms before Narsipatnam to Makavaripalem.

 

Which ever route they take the statistics are mind boggling.

They have indicated that they wish to move 4.5 Million Tons of Bauxite per annum. This figure throws up some interesting logistical statistics:

Considering the narrow ghat roads, if they decide to use a 16T tipper truck the stats are as follows: 

Quantity of Bauxite to be moved per year	4,500,000	4.5m Tons
Truck loads per annum with 16T Tipper	281,250	Trucks loads per year
Transporting with 16 Ton Tipper Tons 12,330/ 16 T / truck	770	Truck loads per day
Working 8 hours a day 770 trucks / 8 hours	96	Trucks per hour
Trucks per minute	1.6	Trucks every minute

If they use the huge 25T multi-axle trucks the numbers look like this:

Quantity of Bauxite to be moved per year	4,500,000	4.5m Tons
Truck loads per annum with 25T Multi Axel	180,000	Trucks loads per year
Transporting with 25 T / multi axel truck	493	Truck loads per day
Working 8 hours a day 493 trucks / 8 hours	61	Trucks per hour
Trucks per minute	1	Truck every minute

These figures are only for all trucks traveling IN ONE DIRECTION. If they come back empty on the same road double everything! Two trucks every 1.6 minutes or 2 Trucks every one minute!  

So if we were standing on one side of the road and wished to cross we would have only a few seconds between trucks! So - to re ask the old question - why does the chicken cross the road? To get squashed under the APMDC truck of course!

There will be hundreds of road deaths a year!

If APMDC was shifting such quantities of material, no one else will be able to use the road. 

What will happen to the hundreds of village santhas all along the route? How will public transport such as buses, auto rickshaws and farm produce trucks ply? How will animals - cows, buffaloes and sheep - be driven to the village fairs?

The current status of the ghat road is bad enough. This is the situation every day (pl see pic below):

 

TREE FELLING

Road widening between Narsipatnam and Downuru - the foothills of the Chintapalli ghats - has already caused hundreds of large old trees to be felled. If the ghat sections are widened there could be more than 20,000 trees that will be lost. A crime against humanity during these days of global warming. On one hand we declare targets to increase tree cover and on the other hand we chop off thousands of huge old trees.

VEHICULAR POLLUTION

Each truck during its 3 hours journey will throw up 200 to 300 kgs of mud and dust into the air. The amount of dust thrown into the air in a year will be a whopping 80,000,000 tons (80 million tons). The road and the roadside trees will be red! It will become unbearable for anyone to live and work along the roadside. Plus add to that vehicular exhaust. I wonder if this has been studied by our friends in the PCB.

WATER

They want to tap 5 million gallons per day from the Yeleru Left Main Canal. Now, 5m gallons per day is equal to 5,000,000 X 4.5 = 22,500,000 liters per day! Estimating that each person needs around 100 liters of water per day for drinking, bathing and washing - this water can be used by 225,000 persons each day!  

This is only to show the enormity of consumption. In reality the water from the Yeleru canal is meant predominantly for agriculture and partly for domestic use.

Work is meanwhile going on with large machinery being shifted to the site

 

There are other huge impacts - and we all know it already - most importantly on the ecology of the hills and on the livelihoods of the Adivasis. 

This giant in our neighborhood will make life unlivable for thousands of people and will deprive them of resources as never before. An entire generation will be affected and after the hills have been raped it will take a thousand years to recover - if it recovers at all.