New Delhi : As part of its ambitious Sagarmala programme, the shipping ministry will sponsor a Rs 30-crore project for training 20,000 workers engaged in ship-recycling activity in Gujarat.
“As part of its Coastal Community Development Programme under Sagarmala, the Ministry of Shipping has sanctioned Rs 10 crore as part of the first instalment to the Gujarat Maritime Board for capacity building and safety training of 20,000 workers involved in the ship-recycling activities at Alang- Sosiya recycling yard in Bhavnagar district in Gujarat,” the Shipping Ministry said in a statement. The total project cost is estimated to be Rs 30 crore over 3 years.
The initiative has been identified in the National Perspective Plan (NPP) of Sagarmala for the upliftment of the coastal community and aims to provide health and safety training to the skilled and semi-skilled workers which is required for their job at ship-recycling yards.
“Due to the accident-prone nature of the ship-breaking activity, the Gujarat Maritime Board has been running an indigenous Safety Training and Labour Welfare Institute at Alang and has trained about 1.10 lakh labourers over the last 12 years,” the statement said.
However, with the increased volume of ship recycling over the last decade and to bring the training standards at par with the international regulations like UN Body-International Maritime Organization, it is imperative to enhance the capacity build-up and upgrade the existing training standards, it said.
The safety training programme under Sagarmala has been specifically designed and conforms to the common norms for skill development schemes under National Skill Qualification Framework notified by the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.
“A new module has been proposed which would impart comprehensive training to workers about occupational safety and hazards at workplaces that are likely to cause injuries, death or chronic occupational diseases,” the statement said.
In India, ship recycling has emerged as an activity of sizeable volume, supplying raw material to steel industry for both re-rolling and re-melting.
The Alang Sosiya Recycling yard is the largest ship-recycling yard in Asia, which employs an average 15,000-25,000 labourers at a time and generates about 35 lakh LDT (Light displacement) per annum.
On an average, 350 ships are recycled every year in which more than 3 million tonnes of steel are generated through the recycling
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