The Hindu : New Delhi News : Tughlakabad depot has no container scanner

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 06, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Tughlakabad depot has no container scanner

By Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI, OCT. 5. While the blast at the Bhushan Steels and Strips unit in Ghaziabad this past week has exposed the large-scale presence of explosives in scrap consignments imported from abroad, it has now come to light that the Delhi Inland Container Depot (ICD) here in Tughlakabad does not have a container scanning machine for detection of hazardous material.

Most scrap consignments off-loaded at Mumbai and Kandla ports and then transported to ICD reportedly come from Middle-East, Vietnam and other countries. These consignments are meant for scrap markets across Northern India, especially Mandi Govindgarh in Punjab and units in Ghaziabad, Moradabad and some places in Haryana. The demand is so huge that the industries concerned are supplied 8,000 to 25,000 tons of scrap per day.

According to an ICD official, explosive materials are found mostly in consignments imported from Middle-East and Vietnam. "Rocket shells and other explosives are found at regular intervals," said the official. Owing to the presence of explosives in these consignments, several cases of injuries caused by explosions have been reported from the ICD in the past.

In a recent incident, a truck driver and his helper were injured when a shell found in the consignment suddenly exploded while they were trying to remove its nickel portion to sell it. They had to be hospitalised.

Admitting that such incidents have occurred in ICD in the past, the official said though the Customs department was required to thoroughly check the contents of the containers before giving clearance, it was humanly impossible to detect explosives in the scrap with naked eyes. This is said to be one of the reasons why they allegedly give clearance to consignments without thoroughly checking them.

Surprisingly, it is learnt that though the ICD here is yet to acquire a container-scanning machine for safe inspection of the contents, one such scanner was installed at Nava Shiva port in Mumbai a few months ago.

Nonetheless, two Customs official responsible for inspecting the scrap consignment meant for Bhushan Steels were placed under suspension and the licence of the clearing agent for the consignments cancelled. While four more containers carrying scrap for the same company are still lying in the ICD, nine other trucks cleared from there which did not reach the unit in Ghaziabad have now been taken to an isolated area in Okhla as a precautionary measure. The police have informed the National Security Guard and the Army for further probe.

The ICD authorities had earlier alerted the Delhi and the Ghaziabad police about these trucks.

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