New Delhi, August 22, 2020: In an official release on Friday, the Gujarat government declared the restarting of the Gujarat Maritime Board’s (GMB) ship breaking yard at Sachana village in Jamnagar district. The yard had been closed since 2012 following a dispute regarding whether a part of it falls under the jurisdiction of the marine national park or the GMB. The decision to restart the ship breaking yard has come after the recommendations of a high power committee formed under the instructions of Gujarat High Court (HC), the release added.
The release said that a dispute was ongoing over a part of the land at Sachana, with the state forest department claiming ownership of the disputed site. Following the claim, the HC in May 2012 had ordered to stall all ship breaking activities at the yard until permission for the same was acquired from competent authorities and further orders by the court.
Later in February 2020, a high power committee was formed by the state government under the orders of HC to give hearing to the parties in dispute, the release said. Following the hearing, the state government had ordered measurements to be taken of the disputed site through the District Inspector of Land Records (DILR) in the presence of officials of the forest department and the GMB. A report in this regard was placed before the high power committee, which concluded that the disputed site falls outside the limits of the marine national park and reserve forest of the forest department according to the reports published in indianexpress.com.
The release also stated that the high power committee has decided to give the disputed site back to GMB to restart the ship breaking yard. Accordingly, it added, the ship breaking yard will be reopened as per the provisions of the Ship Breaking Code, 2013.
With the resumption of operations of the ship breaking yard, around 10,000 people will get direct or indirect employment, the government release said. Before 2012, the ship breaking yard had been functioning since 1977 and was appropriate for breaking small and medium size ships.
