The Union ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) has sought a detailed report from the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) and Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) about an American ship allegedly carrying hazardous toxic waste including radioactive substances, which touched Alang without intimating authorities.
Platinum-II also changed her name from SS Oceanic (formerly SS Independence) without changing documents in IMO Number. It was lying idle at Dubai for nearly a year and a half before changing name.
Gopal Krishna, convener of the Indian Platform on Ship breaking (IPOS), mapped in his letter to the MoEF that the dead vessel arrived at Alang under tow of Tug Barakuda-1 on October 7. “This 682-ft ocean liner is loaded with an estimated 210 tonnes of toxic polychlorinated biphenyl contaminated material and an estimated 250 tonnes of asbestos as part of its construction,” Krishna wrote, demanding that it be sent back to the United States.
GPCB’s local officer GV Patel said they boarded the vessel on October 8 and found approximately 200 tonnes of asbestos-containing material. As soon as Platinium-II anchored at Alang, Haryana Ship breaker (Plot No14) and the ship broker settled with the others for safe beaching the same day, without declaring the vessel to authorities.
However, Tug Barakuda-1 collided with an anchored vessel, Amira-S, exposing the mala fide intensions and the illegal way in which it changed name.
Indian Platform on Ship Breaking is demanding that US recall the ship the way France had recalled Le Clemenceau. The ship was convicted and penalised by USEPA in January 2009 and its entry into Indian waters violated the UN’s Basel Convention on trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes and their disposal.
