13 Fire Safety and Pollution Control

13.1 Fire Fighting Facilities

It is proposed to install Fire Hydrant System, which shall be designed to give adequate fire
protection for the facility based on Indian Standard or equivalent and shall conform to the
provisions of the Tariff Advisory Committee's fire protection Manual.

Fire hydrant system is proposed at the following areas, which are classified as ordinary hazard
areas.
• Coal & Iron Ore Berths.
• Coal & Iron Ore Stackyard.
• Coal Wagon / Truck Loading Station.
• Iron Ore Wagon unloading / dumper house.
• All galleries of Coal & Iron Ore Belt Conveyors.

The fire hydrant system shall be designed to ensure that adequate quantity of water is available
at all times, at all areas of the facility where a potential fire hazard exists. Each hydrant
connection shall be provided with suitable length of hoses and nozzles to permit effective
operation.

It is proposed to provide a firefighting pump house between the coal and iron ore stackyards.
The pump house shall have a raw water sump of 1100 cum capacity and one set of pumps,
consisting of 2 working pumps & 1 standby pump of 273 cum/hr capacity each and 1 jockey
pump of 10.8 cum/hr capacity. The jockey pumps shall maintain the required pressure in the
hydrant system. The operation of pumps provided for the system shall be automatic.

The fire water supply to entire storage and handling areas is divided into 3 circuits, which are
connected in parallel to the discharge header of the pumps.

Circuit 1 covers the coal stackyard, coal conveyors CC 7 & 8, CC 14, CC 15 and part of the
conveyors CC 5 & CC 6. Main header shall be of 300 NB pipe with 10mm thick cement lining at
inner surface.

Circuit 2 covers the coal conveyors CC 1 & CC 2, CC 3 & 4, CC 5 & 6 (partly) and iron ore
conveyors OC10 & 11 and OC 12 & 13. Main header shall be of 350 NB pipe with 10mm thick
cement lining at inner surface.

Circuit 3 covers Iron ore stackyard and iron ore conveyors OC 1, OC 7, OC 8 & OC 9. Main
header shall be of 250 NB pipe with 10mm thick cement lining at inner surface.

The schematic layout of the fire fighting system is shown in Drawing 0903/DPR/372.

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 The hydrant mains shall be laid underground, as far as possible, at a depth not be less than 1m
below the ground level. In case of mains above ground they shall be adequately supported with
successive spans not exceeding 3.5m. The spacing between fire hydrants shall not be more
than 45m.

13.2 Pollution Control

13.2.1 General

One of the essential regulatory functions of a Port Authority is to ensure that the Port waters are
free from pollution. To this end, pollution control assumes a significant role in any port
operations. The main sources of pollution in the port are:

• Discharge of oil by ships / crafts.

• Discharge of bilge by ships / crafts.
• Discharge of dirty / contaminated ballast by ships.
• Discharge of cargo overboard.
• Spillage of cargo during unloading / loading operations.
• Discharge of garbage, sweepings, sewage, etc.
• Discharge of industrial effluents.
• Municipal sewage and drainage.
• Dust from cargo.
• Smoke from ships, vehicles
• Noise from vehicles, machinery.

The most significant of the above sources, for the port at Gangavaram, shall be the dust
emission from the dry bulk cargoes.

13.2.2 Dust Suppression

Dust control equipment is proposed for efficient control of dust pollution to the environment
during storage and handling of coking coal / thermal coal / metallurgical coke at the port & stack
yard. An efficient dust suppression system will contain dust particles before it becomes airborne.

As the common conveyor system is being used for handling of three different cargoes i.e.
cooking coal / thermal coal / metallurgical coke, an efficient belt washing system is proposed to
install for cleaning the belt prior to change over of material takes place. This will minimize the
mixing of different cargoes and possible contamination.

A common system consisting of suitable pump, storage tank, nozzles for belt cleaning & dust
suppression at discharge / feeding points of belt conveyors have been proposed at each coal

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transfer towers for efficient dust control & belt washing system. In this system either of
operations i.e. belt washing prior to material change over on belt or dust control system while
belts are used for conveying cargoes will take place at a time.

In addition to above suitable spray system shall also be provided at ship unloader, coal stack
yard, wagon loading stations & truck loading stations.

Dust control is envisaged at following locations:

S. No. Description of Area / Operation Cargo Dust Emission

1. Ship Unloader discharging on to Cooking Coal / Thermal Coal / Medium
hoppers Metallurgical Coke
2. Coal Stack yard, dust due to wind Cooking Coal / Thermal Coal / Low
Metallurgical Coke
3. Discharge & Feeding points of Cooking Coal / Thermal Coal / Low
coal conveyors Metallurgical Coke
4. Wagon Loading Cooking Coal / Thermal Coal / Medium
Metallurgical Coke
5. Truck Loading from hoppers Cooking Coal / Thermal Coal / Medium
Metallurgical Coke

Belt washing system is proposed at return side of belt at head end for all coal belt conveyors.

Each unit of the proposed dust control system shall consist of plain water tank to store the plain
water, chemical tank for chemical storage, plain water pump, metering pump sprinklers &
nozzles and piping network. Both the tanks shall be provided with low level and high level
switches for control and safety of the pumps. This makes the pump fully automatic and does not
require manual monitoring.

The plain water pump shall pump the plain water to the chemical mixing tank and metering pump
shall dose the chemical to the mixing tank at required ratio. Chemicals are added to reduce the
surface tension of water thereby allowing it to form fine droplets. The low surface tension
enhances the binding of droplets with dust particles thus increasing the efficiency of dust control.

The chemical mixed water will be pumped to the main header from where it shall be distributed
to the sub headers and spray nozzles. The spray nozzles shall be equipped with solenoid valves
to activate the spray when necessary.

The water pumping system shall be designed to operate only when it is required thus saving
energy. The spray in dust generation area shall operate only when material is being handled in
that location.

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 The sprinklers / nozzles as detailed below are proposed in order to control the dust emission at
various points / areas.

Ship Unloader : Fixed cone nozzles shall be placed at an interval of 300mm at receiving
hoppers. Discharge from each sprinkler shall be 3 lpm.

Belt transfer points (in transfer towers) : Fixed cone nozzles mounted on the skirt area and
discharge hoods of the conveyors shall be provided. Fixed cone nozzles shall be placed at an
interval of 300mm and discharge from each nozzle shall be 3 lpm. The nozzles shall wet the
coal along the entire width of the conveyor.

Stack yard : The water sprinkling system at high pressure swiveling type nozzles shall be
installed to cover the entire stockpile. The nozzles shall be installed on pipes at about 2 to 3
meters elevation from ground. The nozzles shall be installed along the stockpile at intervals of
around 40 to 45 meter, which can cover the stockpile height of 8 m and width of 43m. The
discharge from the sprinklers shall be 500 lpm. While stacking / reclaiming the cooking coal /
thermal coal / metallurgical coke, nearest two sprinklers to the discharge / reclaiming point shall
be operated to control the dust generation due to discharge / reclaiming. At other areas of stock
piles two sprinklers at a time shall be operated to control the dust generation due to winds and
operation of these sprinklers shall be sequential.

Wagon loader : Fixed cone nozzles shall be installed at a discharge point of shuttle conveyor on
wagon loader. Nozzles shall be placed at an interval of 300mm and discharge from each nozzle
shall be 3 lpm.

Truck loading Station : Fixed cone nozzles shall be installed at each hopper of the truck
loading station. Nozzles shall be placed at an interval of 300mm and discharge from each
nozzles shall be 3 lpm.

13.2.3 Waste Reception Facilities

There shall be a regular inspection to detect deliberate discharge of oil and wastage or bilge, etc,
by the ships. Also it shall be observed whether there are any leakages from the ships polluting
the waters, and suitable action taken. Facilities are provided to collected the bilge water /slop oil
from the ships visiting the port, through road tankers. It is proposed to provide a reception tank
of 50 cum capacity in the port area. This will be an over ground vertical cylindrical tank. The
collected oil can be sold to various agencies.

Similarly facilities will be provided to collect garbage, sewage and other waste material such as
wood, straw, matting and other packing material. An incinerator of 5 cum capacity will be

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provided at the port for disposing such waste material. The ships could be charged for such
facilities as appropriate.

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