Activists Slam Visakhapatnam Port’s Inadequate Steps To Curb Coal Dust Pollution

Inhabitants of the port city, especially those living in the more seasoned piece of the town and along the Beach Road, have been pondering coal-dust contamination from the port of Visakhapatnam for a considerable length of time, however, ongoing activities by the Visakhapatnam Port Trust to cut down contamination are not exactly enough, activists state.

The port handles warm coal and coking coal import for the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and steam coal for different customers. In 2018-19, the port dealt with 1.85 million tons (mt) of warm coal, 5.80 mt of coking coal and 8.95 mt of steam coal, which together shaped 25.42% of the port's all out freight throughput of 65.30 mt.

Sohan Hatangadi, an urban rights dissident, said "It (the coal-dust) has been awful for a considerable length of time. In the event that we don't swab our floors for multi-day, they will be dark with coal-dust. Whites hung outside to dry mystically turn dark. Our eyes tingle. We have illogical episodes of hacking. The port is endeavoring to put forth a valiant effort yet there is no imaginable closure."

"Chaitanya Sravanthi, a non-administrative association, recorded a suit against the port requesting that VPT introduce adequate coal-dust control measures. The NGT managed in the NGOs support, and coordinated VPT to submit quarterly reports on the move made to cut down the contamination," said Shirin Rahman, leader of Chaitanya Sravanthi.

As indicated by Rahman, Chaitanya Sravanthi had first moved the Lok Ayukta in the consolidated Andhra Pradesh in May 2013 and had lined it up with a suit against VPT in 2016, after 44 individuals were resolved to have passed on of coal-dust contamination in the city in 2012-13.

"The NGT decided that the VPT needed to record quarterly reports about the measures it is taking to diminish the coal-dust contamination brought about by its tasks," Rahman said.

In the most recent quarterly report, for October-December 2018, VPT administrator MT Krishna Babu said that as a feature of VPT's condition the executives plan (EMP) the port was covering its coal stacks with canvases to diminish criminal residue. VPT has assessed that the expense of the coverings and the labor expected to send at that point was Rs 85 lakh. It has additionally been utilizing truck-mounted mist ordinances at the season of stacking and emptying of the coal at an expense of Rs 1.5 crore.

Another measure, as a feature of EMP, was to build and work a truck-tire cleaning framework at the interface of the port and the city at an expense of Rs 81 lakh. Every one of the three exercises is progressing, Krishna Babu said.

"What VPT is doing isn't exactly enough since its coal-stacks close to the Gnanapuram flyover ascend to the tallness of over the stipulated seven meters. At the point when a south-westerly wind blows, the coal-dust is conveyed to the old city, the Beach Road and to regions like Kancharapalem," Rahman told on Tuesday.