Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard is located in
Faujdarhat
Faujdarhat is a neighborhood of Chittagong City in Bangladesh. It is well known as a ship breaking area, with one of the largest breaking yards in the world: Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard. There are several institutions including Faujdarhat Cadet ...
,
Sitakunda Upazila,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...
along the
Sitakunda
Sitakunda or Sitakunda Town ( bn, সীতাকুণ্ড শহর) is an administrative centre and the sole municipality (''Paurashava'') of Sitakunda Upazila in Chattogram District, located in Chattogram Division, Bangladesh. Sitakunda i ...
coastal strip, north-west of
Chittagong
Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in ...
. Handling about a fifth of the world's total, it was the world's largest
ship breaking
Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extractio ...
yard,
until that record was taken by
Alang
Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard.
Demographics
As of the 2001 Indian census, ...
in India. It employs over 200,000
Bangladeshis
Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay.
Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when th ...
, and accounts for around one-half of all the steel in Bangladesh.
It is the world's second-largest
ship breaking
Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extractio ...
yard after
Alang Ship Breaking Yard
The Alang Ship Breaking Yard is claimed to be the world's largest ship breaking yard, responsible for dismantling a significant number of retired freight and cargo ships salvaged around the world. It is located on the Gulf of Khambhat in the town ...
(
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
), followed by
Gadani ship-breaking yard
Gadani ship-breaking yard is the world's third largest ship breaking yard located across a long beachfront at Gadani, Pakistan. The yard consists of 132 ship-breaking plots."Record 107 ships dismantled at Gaddani" by Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana, ''Dawn ...
(
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
) and
Aliağa Ship Breaking Yard (
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
).
History
In 1960, after a severe cyclone, the Greek ship ''M D Alpine'' was stranded on the shores of
Sitakunda
Sitakunda or Sitakunda Town ( bn, সীতাকুণ্ড শহর) is an administrative centre and the sole municipality (''Paurashava'') of Sitakunda Upazila in Chattogram District, located in Chattogram Division, Bangladesh. Sitakunda i ...
,
Chittagong
Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in ...
. It could not be re-floated and so remained there for several years. In 1965, Chittagong Steel House bought the ship and had it scrapped. It took years to scrap the vessel, but the work gave birth to the industry in
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...
.
During the
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali ...
, a Pakistani ship ''Al Abbas'' was damaged by bombing. Later on, the ship was salvaged by a Soviet team who were working at Chittagong port at the time and the ship was brought to the Faujdarhat seashore. A local company,
Karnafully Metal Works Ltd bought it as scrap in 1974 and introduced commercial ship breaking in the country.
The industry grew steadily through the 1980s and, by the middle of the 1990s, the country ranked number two in the world by tonnage scrapped. In 2008, there were 26 ship breaking yards in the area, and in 2009 there were 40. From 2004 to 2008, the area was the largest ship-breaking yard in the world. However, by 2012 it had dropped from half to a fifth of worldwide ship-breaking.
[
At one stage the industry was a tourist attraction, but outsiders are no longer welcome due to its poor ]safety
Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.
Meanings
There are two slightly di ...
record; a local watchdog group claims that one worker dies a week and one is injured a day on average.
Workers have neither protective equipment
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, ele ...
nor financial security. In 2014, shipping company Hapag-Lloyd
Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company. Hapag-Lloyd was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and North German Lloyd.
History
The company was formed on September 1, 1 ...
followed an earlier decision by Maersk to stop using the yard for breaking its old ships, despite the higher costs elsewhere.
A scene of the movie '' Avengers: Age of Ultron'' was shot at the ship breaking yards of Chittagong.
Gallery
File:Chittagong Ship breaking yard.JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Jafrabad_Chittagong_shipbreaking_(7).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (6).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (2).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (1).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (3).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (4).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (5).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Shipbreakingbangladesh.jpg, Ship breaking in Sitakunda
File:Shipbreaking Yard Bhatiari, Sitakunda.jpg, Shipbreaking Yard Bhatiari, Sitakunda
File:Worlds biggest ship breaking yard in Bangladesh by Idolhunter Lckuang.jpg, Panoramic view of a shipbreaking yard in Chittagong
See also
* Alang Ship Breaking Yard
The Alang Ship Breaking Yard is claimed to be the world's largest ship breaking yard, responsible for dismantling a significant number of retired freight and cargo ships salvaged around the world. It is located on the Gulf of Khambhat in the town ...
* List of ship breaking yards
References
External links
*
*
{{recycling
Economy of Chittagong
Ship breaking
Economy of Bangladesh