KOCHI: Eliminating the risk of transporting hazardous gas by road, the public-sector Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT) is set to complete 10 years of transporting liquefied ammonia gas along the Champakkara-Udyogamandal canals using a barge.
FACT, which started using the barge in 2013, has so far transported 6,76,857 metric tonnes of liquified ammonia gas.
The barge, MAB Hail Mary, has been transporting liquified ammonia from Willingdon Island and Udyogamandal to FACT’s Ambalamedu unit. The company uses ammonia for the production of Factamfos, its flagship product. Before the use of waterways, FACT relied on rail wagons road tankers to transport the hazardous gas. Since Udyogamandal was not connected by rail, its dependence on road tankers was heavy.
The move to use waterways for the transport of ammonia came after a Kerala High Court order on October 25, 2011, which directed FACT to take immediate steps to arrange transport via water using insulated vessels.
“We started the operation on November 27, 2013, and ours is a public-private partnership project. While the barge is owned by us, the six liquified ammonia gas bullets mounted on our barge are owned by FACT,” said A M James, director of Backwater Navigation Co, which operates the barge. “This was the first barge used to transport hazardous gas through national waterways 3,” he said.
In the last 10 years, 45,124 trucks have been taken off Kochi’s roads, lowering environmental pollution to an extent, he said. “We have proved beyond doubt that inland water shipping is the safest, cheapest, and most environment-friendly mode of transport and most ideal for hazardous chemicals and goods,” James said.