Another asbestos-laden ship is heading towards India’s Alang ship-breaking yards where its owners hope it will be dismantled.

According to an article posted on Yahoo News India, the 682-feet ship S.S. Oceanic, headed for Alang on the Saurashtra coast, is carrying about 250 tonnes of asbestos.

Alang was thrust into the news last year when the Norwegian ship Blue Lady was beached off the coast and later allowed to enter the port. Workers at the ship-breaking yard were eventually allowed to dismantle the ship under supervision of a technical committee, the article notes.

Alang is known for its improper handling of toxic waste from dismantled ships, according to reports by a number of environmental groups, including Green Peace. The shipyard also suffers a high number of industrial accidents caused by poor work safety regulations, experts say.

Sources in the Alang ship-breaking yard said the Blue Lady is being dismantled at present. A spokesperson for the yard, however, said he was unaware that the S.S. Oceanic was coming to Alang for dismantling.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 8:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.