India can become the hub for automobile scrapping in the entire South-East Asian region, and discarded vehicles from neighbouring countries can land at Kandla for scrappage under the new policy, informed Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhiangar on Friday.

The Kandla Port on the Kutch coast has developed a draft of 18-metre, thereby making it convenient for large two-lakh tonne ships to berth at the port. Gadkari stated that this capability can be utilised to generate economic benefits from scrapping of vehicles from nearby countries.

“Our aim is to make India a scrapping hub in the South-East Asia region. Our neighbours in the region, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Maldives and Sri Lanka can send their cars to Kandla for scrapping purpose,” he said.

Employment opportunity

The industrial cluster at Kandla will generate employment too. “I urge the Gujarat Chief Minister to set up an industrial cluster at Kandla that can benefit Gujarat and the country,” he said adding that development plans for prominent shipbreaking yard Alangas an integrated scrapping hub are underway.

The scientific scrapping processes under the new policy will channelise the used materials back into production with recycling. These includes copper, aluminium, steel, rubber and plastic. The government has kept a primary criteria of the policy to ensure maximum recovery of the raw material. With planned and adequate segregation, the recovered material can be supplied to ancillary industries. The government has studied the practices in advanced countries like Belgium and Japan.

“With scientific processes, we can get upto 99% recovery from the scrapped vehicle. This will make additional raw material available for production and can reduceraw material cost by upto 40%,” Gadkari said adding that government will also urge auto companies to offer 5% concession on car prices for those with scrappage certificate.

Auto sales

At the reduced raw material cost and improved competitiveness in the international market, the country can look for improved auto sales globally.

“With these estimates of increased automobile sales globally, we can expect the Centre to earn additional ₹40,000-50,000 core from GST and States would also benefit with upto ₹30,000-40,000 crore,” he added suggesting the policy to be a win-win for all stakeholders including the government, workers, entrepreneurs, small business owners and automobile and metal companies.

Every district will have a fitness center developed on a public-private partnership (PPP) model. Also, the government is planning to have one authorised scrapping centre within the limit of 150-200 kilometres.

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