Vizag & Gangavaram Port Expansions spell big trouble for Vizag residents
Expansion of ports - news reports
In recent months, and as recently as last week, there have been news items in the press about the expansion of Vizag and Gangavaram ports. Reading these reports makes me feel like a prisoner being sent to the gas chamber! Please read these news items:
1. "Gangavaram Port in expansion mode".
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/article3348360.ece
2. "Gangavaram port expansion set to take off; funds tied up"
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/article3473764.ece?ref=wl_industry-and-economy
VPT - The emperor of pollution
Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) is the most notorious polluter of Vizag. The sea water in the port area which was full of marine life, now thanks to the oil, coal, ore, sulfur and pollution supports no life at all. Their Coal and Iron Ore Dust spreads all over the city. From Soldierpeta to Gyanapuram. From Kotaveedhi to Suryabagh. From Jalaripeta to Waltair Uplands. Thousands of people suffering with, and succumbing to, respiratory diseases can attribute their condition directly to this monster. No other civilized country in the world would allow such a large polluter to function even for a month. Some people opine that in such a situation the CEO of the polluting company would be hauled to court and land up in jail. In this case however the Vizag Port Trust (VPT) is a government organisation under the Ministry of Shipping and therefore no one is is held responsible for this inexcusable pollution. Now they want to expand further from 68 million tons per annum (mta) to 110 mta within the next 5 years.
Gangavaram Port - soon to be the Queen of Pollution
This port started in 2008 and is rapidly becoming another polluter. Up to 70% of their cargo is Coal. Considering that most of their revenue comes from the black stuff they have done precious little to ensure that it does not pollute the surroundings. These guys also want to expand from 15 million tons per annum (mta) to a whopping 45 mta within the next 4 years
Here is a graph illustrating the expansion in progress:
Its happening as you read this
The expansion plans are not for some distant time when we will not be here. Its just around the corner - in fact less than 5 years away. So here is how the expansion figures look
The main culprits - Coal and Iron Ore
The main culprit materials being handled by these two ports and responsible for most of the dust pollution is Coal and Iron ore. The following two pie charts show the percentage of coal and iron ore handled by the two ports of Vizag.
Visakhapatnam Port Trust - what they handle
45% of VPTs cargo is dusty stuff that permeates Vizag. This is the stuff that you and I are breathing in all the time. (And I quit smoking to live longer ... ha!)
Gangavaram Port Trust - what they handle now
How do these ports stack up against each other in handling the polluting stuff:
In recent months, and as recently as last week, there have been news items in the press about the expansion of Vizag and Gangavaram ports. Reading these reports makes me feel like a prisoner being sent to the gas chamber! Please read these news items:
1. "Gangavaram Port in expansion mode".
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/article3348360.ece
2. "Gangavaram port expansion set to take off; funds tied up"
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/article3473764.ece?ref=wl_industry-and-economy
VPT - The emperor of pollution
Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) is the most notorious polluter of Vizag. The sea water in the port area which was full of marine life, now thanks to the oil, coal, ore, sulfur and pollution supports no life at all. Their Coal and Iron Ore Dust spreads all over the city. From Soldierpeta to Gyanapuram. From Kotaveedhi to Suryabagh. From Jalaripeta to Waltair Uplands. Thousands of people suffering with, and succumbing to, respiratory diseases can attribute their condition directly to this monster. No other civilized country in the world would allow such a large polluter to function even for a month. Some people opine that in such a situation the CEO of the polluting company would be hauled to court and land up in jail. In this case however the Vizag Port Trust (VPT) is a government organisation under the Ministry of Shipping and therefore no one is is held responsible for this inexcusable pollution. Now they want to expand further from 68 million tons per annum (mta) to 110 mta within the next 5 years.
Gangavaram Port - soon to be the Queen of Pollution
This port started in 2008 and is rapidly becoming another polluter. Up to 70% of their cargo is Coal. Considering that most of their revenue comes from the black stuff they have done precious little to ensure that it does not pollute the surroundings. These guys also want to expand from 15 million tons per annum (mta) to a whopping 45 mta within the next 4 years
Here is a graph illustrating the expansion in progress:
 |
| Expansion plans both ports |
Its happening as you read this
The expansion plans are not for some distant time when we will not be here. Its just around the corner - in fact less than 5 years away. So here is how the expansion figures look
The main culprit materials being handled by these two ports and responsible for most of the dust pollution is Coal and Iron ore. The following two pie charts show the percentage of coal and iron ore handled by the two ports of Vizag.
Visakhapatnam Port Trust - what they handle
45% of VPTs cargo is dusty stuff that permeates Vizag. This is the stuff that you and I are breathing in all the time. (And I quit smoking to live longer ... ha!)
 |
| VPT's cargo mix |
 |
| Gangavaram Port's cargo mix |
 |
| Dirty stuff - who handles how much |
The moolah is in this polluting stuff
The demand for handling of coal has been soaring. Iron ore is sort of steady for now. As soon as the big boys sort out the iron ore mining mess this segment will grow like hell. Obviously the coal and iron ore is what brings in the moolah for the ports. No wonder they want a big piece of this dirty pie.
Years of promises from VPT
Ever since Mr. Ajeya Kallam (IAS), (who incidentally has a Masters Degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding) took over as Chairman of VPT in 2008, he has been dodging the pollution issue.
His stock response has been that modernisation is taking place and all pollution problems will magically go away. I must admire him for his smiling demeanor at all public meetings even under severe attack. The fact is - there has been zero progress on pollution control over the last four years. In fact it has just gone from bad to worse.
Now we hear that they want to expand without first solving the present problem. Last year there was a hubbub in Vizag when VPT said they would expand all the way till the fishing harbour and convert the whole area into stock yards. After several protests things are a little quiet for now. In the meantime, I understand that they are acquiring the venerable St. Aloysius school, which was built in 1874. This is a personal blow to me because I studied there as a child.
This map gives us an idea of the spread of coal and iron ore dust
Even a layman can see that the most important issue for the port is to not to kill off the city with its pollution. But does the port bother? Read on.
Here come the consultants
In its desire to expand the port, to capitalize on the future potential, VPT brought in two consultants - Rotterdam Maritime Group and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). They submitted a 352 page Business Plan.
IMPORTANT: How serious is the port about environmental protection?
Evidence 1, 2 & and 3 my lord!
1. Try to find one word about "environment" in their Mission Statement ... it is not there!
2. Of the 1 lakh 19 thousand words in the plan only 431 words are devoted to the environmental protection! In percentage terms a mere 0.36%.
3. Of the 352 pages in the Business Plan only a grand total of 1 page covers environmental protection! In percentage terms - a mere 0.28%
Insensitive consultants?
What is most surprising is that the Rotterdam Maritime Group and TCS both respected consultants understood so little about the concerns of the city's population when making recommendations to the Visakhapatnam Port Trust. In Europe - European businesses are super sensitive to environmental concerns. But in India they did not bother much to save us natives from the port trust. TCS an Indian company should have been more sensitive to their fellow Indians but they did not bother either.
Or insensitive port trust?
I have great respect for consultants - I must assume therefore that their client - VPT - simply winked and said - "forget about environmental impact stuff its not important"
More expansion - more pollution. Duh!
Reading the above three points, any layman would reason that the port does not give a damn about protecting Vizagites from its dust pollution.Therefore we don't have to be geniuses to understand that with more expansion we get more pollution.
One of the consultants is a Rotterdam group - how much dirty cargo do they handle in the Rotterdam port?
Notice that they handle twice as much dirty cargo as VPT. Yet I am told that driving through Rotterdam, you would not even know that there is a port close by, handling so much Coal and iron ore. That, my friends is the difference between the Europeans and us. They demand and get the standards they aspire for. We are too busy with our lives to bother.
This chart shows how the Rotterdam port has treated particulate pollution seriously and has brought down the "Particulate Matter" or PM matter in air consistently over the last several years from the region of 550 to below 200 now. Refer 1 Vrins Luchtonderzoek, Bredeweg 61, 6668 AS Randwijk, the Netherlands. +31(0)488 491385. ernest@vrins.net. 2 DCMR Environmental Protection Agency Rijnmond, PO Box 843, Schiedam, the Netherlands.sef.vandenelshout@dcmr.nl.
I regret that, at the time of publishing this, I could not find the equivalent PM10 emission rate for Vizag port, some research is required, but it is obviously super high. Just driving through the port area will change the colour of your car to black and red! Proof enough for me.
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How other countries are handling coal dust
Advanced countries hermetically seal ff their dusty cargo areas in large dome like shapes. Here is how they look:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is how our Vizag port stores their coal
Gangavaram Port - are they eco sensitive?
Gangavaram port in HZL area?
A small news item in the papers says that Gangavam Port is taking Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) area to store cargo. What cargo is not known, somehow there are always blanks to fill in news reports, keeps the reader engaged I guess. The important part is that they are in the process of cutting down several large old trees. This gives an idea of the environmental insensitivity of this organisation.
Gangavaram Port - How professional? How public friendly?
Gangavaram Port web site gives their email ID as port port@gangavaram.com. Emails sent to this ID lands up at hr@gangavaram.com but bounces back because their in box is full! Says a lot for the type of organisation we are dealing with!
But there is plenty more. This is a long story, but I have to stop and upload this post now. I will be back in a few weeks with more massala.
Message to Vizagites
Apathy is going to kill us. If you are reading this blog, the least you can do is leave a comment and spread the word. These two port monsters at our gates are not bothered about cleaning up their act. They don't mind ruining our air and water to reach their goals and make their money. And our government does not care for us. If they did, they would ensure that the ports cleaned up before being permitted to expand. We must have zero tolerance for any air and water pollution from now on. If we keep quiet - we and our children will suffer the consequences. Just like the charming old One Town and Soldierpeta, where I grew up, was destroyed, the rest of Vizag as we know it, will become unbearable. We will have to move further North again. Will we let them do that to us?
Its like an old uncle coming home to visit. He keeps breaking wind all evening. When you complain, he says - "hey I have a right to break wind - if you don't like it you can leave this room". In this case we are not leaving the room, we will be forced to leave the town.
Message to our ports
If you want to do business here, don't do it at the expense of our health. Make sure our air is not polluted with your coal and iron ore dust. No one says "do not develop", just ensure that you actually go by world standards - not just talk about it.
Some links to read:
http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/06/stories/2011060653990200.htm
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/article2081094.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/article447104.ece
The demand for handling of coal has been soaring. Iron ore is sort of steady for now. As soon as the big boys sort out the iron ore mining mess this segment will grow like hell. Obviously the coal and iron ore is what brings in the moolah for the ports. No wonder they want a big piece of this dirty pie.
Years of promises from VPT
Ever since Mr. Ajeya Kallam (IAS), (who incidentally has a Masters Degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding) took over as Chairman of VPT in 2008, he has been dodging the pollution issue.
His stock response has been that modernisation is taking place and all pollution problems will magically go away. I must admire him for his smiling demeanor at all public meetings even under severe attack. The fact is - there has been zero progress on pollution control over the last four years. In fact it has just gone from bad to worse.
Now we hear that they want to expand without first solving the present problem. Last year there was a hubbub in Vizag when VPT said they would expand all the way till the fishing harbour and convert the whole area into stock yards. After several protests things are a little quiet for now. In the meantime, I understand that they are acquiring the venerable St. Aloysius school, which was built in 1874. This is a personal blow to me because I studied there as a child.
This map gives us an idea of the spread of coal and iron ore dust
 |
| Indication of dust pollution coverage |
Here come the consultants
In its desire to expand the port, to capitalize on the future potential, VPT brought in two consultants - Rotterdam Maritime Group and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). They submitted a 352 page Business Plan.
IMPORTANT: How serious is the port about environmental protection?
Evidence 1, 2 & and 3 my lord!
1. Try to find one word about "environment" in their Mission Statement ... it is not there!
2. Of the 1 lakh 19 thousand words in the plan only 431 words are devoted to the environmental protection! In percentage terms a mere 0.36%.
3. Of the 352 pages in the Business Plan only a grand total of 1 page covers environmental protection! In percentage terms - a mere 0.28%
Insensitive consultants?
What is most surprising is that the Rotterdam Maritime Group and TCS both respected consultants understood so little about the concerns of the city's population when making recommendations to the Visakhapatnam Port Trust. In Europe - European businesses are super sensitive to environmental concerns. But in India they did not bother much to save us natives from the port trust. TCS an Indian company should have been more sensitive to their fellow Indians but they did not bother either.
Or insensitive port trust?
I have great respect for consultants - I must assume therefore that their client - VPT - simply winked and said - "forget about environmental impact stuff its not important"
More expansion - more pollution. Duh!
Reading the above three points, any layman would reason that the port does not give a damn about protecting Vizagites from its dust pollution.Therefore we don't have to be geniuses to understand that with more expansion we get more pollution.
One of the consultants is a Rotterdam group - how much dirty cargo do they handle in the Rotterdam port?
This chart shows how the Rotterdam port has treated particulate pollution seriously and has brought down the "Particulate Matter" or PM matter in air consistently over the last several years from the region of 550 to below 200 now. Refer 1 Vrins Luchtonderzoek, Bredeweg 61, 6668 AS Randwijk, the Netherlands. +31(0)488 491385. ernest@vrins.net. 2 DCMR Environmental Protection Agency Rijnmond, PO Box 843, Schiedam, the Netherlands.sef.vandenelshout@dcmr.nl.
I regret that, at the time of publishing this, I could not find the equivalent PM10 emission rate for Vizag port, some research is required, but it is obviously super high. Just driving through the port area will change the colour of your car to black and red! Proof enough for me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How other countries are handling coal dust
Advanced countries hermetically seal ff their dusty cargo areas in large dome like shapes. Here is how they look:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is how our Vizag port stores their coal
 |
| Port Aerial View 1 |
 |
| Outer Harbour |
 |
| A clean view of our dirty port |
Gangavaram Port - are they eco sensitive?
 |
| Coal heaps in Gangavaram Port |
Gangavaram port in HZL area?
A small news item in the papers says that Gangavam Port is taking Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) area to store cargo. What cargo is not known, somehow there are always blanks to fill in news reports, keeps the reader engaged I guess. The important part is that they are in the process of cutting down several large old trees. This gives an idea of the environmental insensitivity of this organisation.
Gangavaram Port - How professional? How public friendly?
Gangavaram Port web site gives their email ID as port port@gangavaram.com. Emails sent to this ID lands up at hr@gangavaram.com but bounces back because their in box is full! Says a lot for the type of organisation we are dealing with!
Message to Vizagites
Apathy is going to kill us. If you are reading this blog, the least you can do is leave a comment and spread the word. These two port monsters at our gates are not bothered about cleaning up their act. They don't mind ruining our air and water to reach their goals and make their money. And our government does not care for us. If they did, they would ensure that the ports cleaned up before being permitted to expand. We must have zero tolerance for any air and water pollution from now on. If we keep quiet - we and our children will suffer the consequences. Just like the charming old One Town and Soldierpeta, where I grew up, was destroyed, the rest of Vizag as we know it, will become unbearable. We will have to move further North again. Will we let them do that to us?
Its like an old uncle coming home to visit. He keeps breaking wind all evening. When you complain, he says - "hey I have a right to break wind - if you don't like it you can leave this room". In this case we are not leaving the room, we will be forced to leave the town.
Message to our ports
If you want to do business here, don't do it at the expense of our health. Make sure our air is not polluted with your coal and iron ore dust. No one says "do not develop", just ensure that you actually go by world standards - not just talk about it.
Some links to read:
http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/06/stories/2011060653990200.htm
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/article2081094.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/article447104.ece
Comments
Mere comments will not do. To do something about it, gotta do something about it. Target 2014. Get rid of the menace.
Great work, Count me in if you plan to take out a rally, morcha or anshan or whatever it may take to get the top guys who matter to listen. Will try to get a few more concerned Vizagites to join me. I agree mere comments wouldn't do, it's time for us to show some action. Lets take motivation from Mr.Kishore Chandra Deo, who is in his way opposing the degradation of the forest/agency areas by the mining mafias. All of us need progress but not at the cost of our health and the beauty of our city.