Ship-breaking at Gadani

Dawn.com Published October 23, 2011

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Pakistan’s Gadani ship-breaking yard is one of the world's largest ship breaking operations. The yard is located on a 10 km stretch of beach at Gadani, about 50 kilometres northwest of Karachi. Ship breaking in some shape or form has been taking place on Gadani beach since before Pakistan’s independence.

Gadani currently has an annual capacity of breaking over a hundred ships of all sizes, including supertankers and large cargo-ships.

During the 1970’s and 80’s ship breaking peaked as an industry here in Pakistan, and Gadani was for a time, the largest breaking yard in the world.

Today in Pakistan, ship breaking provides a sizeable amount of the steel that is required for various development and industries. The steel is stripped from ships systematically after they arrive on shore, and then it is sent off to be further processed.

Dawn.com took a short tour of these yards and the steel-related factories that surround them. We were guided and informed about the various activities by a local industry insider, Usman Iqbal, who manages the activities of a rolling mill near Gadani. – Photos by Nadir Siddiqui/Dawn.com and Fehd Siddique

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salman

Oct 23, 2011 09:13pm

This is amazing!

Recommend 0

chandu

Oct 24, 2011 01:01am

Ship Breaking releases loads of carcinogenic materials along with loads of asbestos in most cases. It spoils environment and people's health. Due to these reasons and strict US and EU laws major countries are out sourcing this task.

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Ashar Hamid

Oct 24, 2011 04:16am

I found this article to be very interesting.

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Abbassin

Oct 24, 2011 11:08am

What a feel good story -rare as they are coming from Pakistan.It is good to to find out that the business of Ship breaking is back in full swing-after many ups & downs. I am sure it employs lots of workers & generates lots of revenue, & hopefully taxes for the treasury. A few negatives though- I see that the workers are not properly clothed & do not seem to be wearing any safety Goggles, safety shoes, hard hats etc. it will be worthwhile to publish a follow up story, to cover areas such as the overall working conditions, wages, worker benefits etc.plus how much overall economic activity is generated by the yearly operation. The last, but not the least,what environmental controls are in place- to assure that the beach surface & the surrounding Sea are not polluted beyond repairs.

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Capt Mansur Khan

Oct 24, 2011 12:17pm

I have taken ships to these places in India as well. Amazing how we do the jobs without any regard to safety, health and environments. Nowhere else on this planet can such complex jobs be performed without concern for workers and environment. On the flip side it gives our people employment and iron at cheaper prices. So many workers get killed/injured without any investigation and compensation. All safety and environment rules are in place and applicable but CORRUPTION by-passes them.....so sad

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izaz haque

Oct 25, 2011 05:35am

Beautiful photoessay. I couldn't help but think about the protections (or lack of) afforded to workers working with hazardous material.

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Kamran Roghay

Oct 30, 2011 08:16pm

The pioneer of ship breaking in Gadani was Mr M.M.Bakshi who work day & night for the benifit of Gadani. He is the one who built the road of Gadani in Z.A.Bhutto time.After him Mr G.A.Punjwani came in picture then go on

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Pakistan zindabad

Jun 08, 2012 11:15pm

I hope our leabour & those who connected in this field they boost this industary at top & no 1 reach our records,How can i invest to buy any kind of scrabs & connect with this industary.

Recommend 0

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