JAMNAGAR, June 17: The country may be in for a major shortage of salt, with last week's cyclone having destroyed the salt pans on the Gujarat coast which contributed about 70 per cent of the country's total production. Work has come to a standstill and there is little chance of production starting again in six months.The tidal waves devastated 21 salt pans, spread over 32,000 hectares, in Jamnagar alone, which produced 30 per cent of Gujarat's salt. In Kandla and Gandhidham, where the damage was far more extensive, one lakh acres of salt pans were ruined."Looking at the extent of damage, these salt pans cannot start production until the next six months," said Bharat Kamdar, president of the Kutch Saurashtra Salt Manufacturer's Association. "The pans have been completely destroyed and there is no labour to restart work," added Keshavlal Nahata, a salt manufacturer in Gandhidham.Among the 21 major salt manufacturers in Jamnagar district are big producers like Birla Salt and Chemicals Ltd and TataChemicals, which have more than 15,000 acres. According to Parvish Dhurve, secretary of the association, "Only a few big companies may be able to start production by December; all others can't do it before March next year."For, the cyclone was flattened the intricate earthwork involved in salt production, including the pans, reservoirs and condensors. Said Rajnikant Khudkhudia, Manager of Birla Salt and Chemicals, "We cannot work on the pans in the monsoon. So, work will not begin before October. And it will take months to prepare all the earthwork again. We do not expect production to start before December."The work will involve considerable investment as the sheds and plants have been damaged, said Khudkhudia. Kamdar said that most of the small manufacturers will never recover from their losses, which included the stocks that melted away in water. In fact, many manufacturers have already started abandoning their pans.One major problem is going to be arranging labour, as most of the workers havefled to their home states. "It is going to be very difficult to get them back. Besides, the labour colonies have all been blown away, so there is no place to house them," said Nitin Kamdar of Kamdar Salt and Chemical Industries.Some salt stocks in the pans on the Surendranagar coast and Malia Miana in Rajkot district escaped damage, but these may last not more than a month.
