Road Route For Coal: Choked Lungs, Homes & Trees

It’s 9 am and Manjunath Nagraj waits in his truck outside Mormugao Port’s Gate No. 1 to pick up steam coal for Ms Metals and Steel Pvt Ltd, a steel factory at Koppal in Karnakata. The coal was loaded from Richards Bay, one of the world’s largest coal export facilities in South Africa, and lugged into MV Jaguar Max, a Bahamas-flag vessel now docked at the port. The importer, records show, is Singapore-based Adani Global Private. Unlike JSW, Adani’s needs from Mormugao are more that of a “trader” — they use their berth for “coal needs of a third party,” says a port official. And Manjunath is the last logistical link in this freight chain that leads to a clutch of steel factories in Koppal, 320 km away by road.