Left with just 20% workforce, Alang ship breakers hit hard

Rajkot: Alang in Bhavnagar, that houses one of world’s largest ship breaking and recycling industry, looks like a deserted place despite majority of the units resuming work from April 30 after relaxation from the government.
Industry player say that on one hand they are facing a loss of over Rs 350 crore because of the lockdown across the globe, and on the the other hand they left with 20-25% labour force to work in the ship breaking yards.
Of the 10,000-odd workers trained in ship breaking, 80% are migrants and most of they have left for their natives or will be leaving soon over the next one week.
The ship breaking yard had shut down on March 24, a day before the central government ordered lockdown. However, around 70 out of the 100 units, started operation on April 30 after government industrial units to function outside municipal corporation areas.
Vishnu Gupta, president of Ship Recycling Industrial Association (SRIA) said, “We will soon be left with only 20-25% of labour force as most of the migrant labourers have left or will be leaving soon. The work in all the plots is likely stop in the next 5-7 days.”
He said that since this was specialized sector, they can’t hire untrained labourers. “We have also requested the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) to start it’s training centre so that the unemployed diamond workers who have returned to Bhavnagar from Surat can get employment at Alang,” he added.
One ship used to come to Alang every day, but since last 60 days not a signal ship has docked here, said Gupta.
SRIA secretary Haresh Parmar said, “The government should have allowed migrant labourers to return to their native when lockdown started. They could have come back by the time the factories resumed the operation. The government should also arrange trains for those labourers who want to come to Gujarat for work.”
“We are staring at loss of Rs 300-400 crore. We get ship for breaking at the credit of six to nine months. The depreciation of rupee has also hurt the business,” Parmar added.