New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Recycling of Ships Bill, 2019 which will pave the way for safer environment in which ships are recycled in India.

The Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha last week, will make for India’s accession to the Hong Kong Convention that enlists environmentally sound conditions of ship recycling.

Till now only the guidelines of the Supreme Court passed in 2013, as code on hazardous waste management were being followed. Those guidelines have been dovetailed with The Hong Kong Convention 2009. “The Hong Kong Convention lays down the measures as well as legal boundaries for enforcement of green recycling of ships,” said Mansukh Mandaviya, minister of shipping.

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) adopted the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmental ..

ET reported on August 15 that India was looking to bring a new Act that allows it to accede to the Hong Kong Convention.

As per IMO, the Hong Kong Convention intends to address all issues around ship recycling, including the fact that ships sold for scrapping may contain environmentally hazardous substances. It also addresses concerns raised about the working and environmental conditions at many of the world’s ship recycling location

Mandaviya on Monday introduced the bill in the upper house of the Parliament. The Ship Recycling Bill 2019 is going to pave way for the global ships to enter the Indian shipyards for recycling.

Countries like Norway and Japan and many other EU countries are eagerly looking forward to dispatch their ships, Mandaviya said.