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| Chemplast Sanmar Limited |
| Where quality is crystal clear |
| Vedaranyam Salt Works |
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| Salt water in the crystalliser is scraped
and salt crystals are collected in the surrounding ridges
at Chemplast Sanmar’s Vedaranyam Salt Works. |
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| The pumping station at the Point Calimere
seaface. |
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| Integration, both forward and backward,
and a strong urge to be self-sufficient and self-reliant
in the matter of feedstock and power, have always been
part of the Sanmar group’s strategic planning. Its flagship
company Chemplast Sanmar pioneered these concepts in this
part of the world and this explains the fruitful investments
it has made over the years in manufacture of industrial
alcohol, and in power generation for captive use. The
company’s decision to have its own source of salt supply
followed the same chain of thought. |
| The sea is the largest source of common
salt—lakes, rocks and mines being the other sources. In
India, the chief supplier of salt is the sea. Vedaranyam
and Adiramapatnam are two of its richest sources in Tamil
Nadu. When Mahatma Gandhi launched a satyagraha against
an unjust British tax on salt in 1930, Vedaranyam was
the south Indian venue where C Rajagopalachari led the
salt march. |
| The Vedaranyam swamp proved an ideal
location for setting up salt works. The high density Vaisakham
tides between mid-May and mid-September, combined with
the south-westerly winds, push seawater over large areas
of the swamp. The area is hedged on the south and east
by the Kodiakkadu Reserve Forest. This protects the works
and its property from tidal waves and dust storms. The
place is also connected well by road and rail. |
| The Vedaranyam Salt Works of Chemplast
Sanmar had its beginnings in the facility set up in 1942
by The Mettur Chemicals and Industrial Corporation Ltd.
(MCIC) to supply salt to its caustic soda plant. That
MCIC supplied chlorine for decades to Chemplast for its
PVC plant until it became part of Chemplast Sanmar in
1988 is a well-known fact. To have the company’s own salt
works made perfect sense, as twice as much salt as the
desired quantity of caustic soda is required as raw material,
and it also fitted in with the group’s emphasis on strategic
integration. |
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| Initially around 100 acres of salt land was
taken up to produce high quality salt. Gradually as the company’s
caustic soda capacity increased, around 3500 acres of salt land
was acquired at Vedaranyam along the side of the road to Point
Calimere. |
| Working close to nature |
| The Chemplast Sanmar Salt Works at Vedaranyam
is an impressive spread of swamp land, spread over an area of
3,500 acres, with a capacity of nearly 1.3 lakh tons of salt
per annum. Going round the vast expanse of salt ponds along
the transportation pathways, a visitor is struck by the simple
elegance, economy and efficiency of the operations. Here, it
is imperative to work closely with the cycles of nature, and
allow its forces to aid you in maximizing output. The labour
force are village folk who approach their work with a devotion
born of faith in nature and God. |
| Their raw material is seawater, pumped from
Point Calimere or Kodiakkarai on the shores of the Palk Straits
linking India and Sri Lanka, by means of the company’s own pumpsets.
As the brine makes its way to the works, its concentration increases—following
further rounds of pumping—from 2.5° Be (or gms per 100 cc) eventually
to 24° by stages. When high winds blow—even in normal times,
the wind attains a velocity of 45 kmph—the seawater flow is
accelerated enough to facilitate switching off the pumpsets,
thus saving on electric power. |
| Every season starts with a special puja, offered
to Ganesa, the elephant god of good beginnings of the Hindu
pantheon. Tradition dictates that the head of the enterprise
perform it personally, accompanied by spouse. The first salt
is scraped by senior personnel by their own hands and the initial
output is offered ceremonially at a Hindu temple at Nagapattinam,
the Nagoor dargah and the minor basilican church at Velankanni,
in a spirit of religious harmony, not often seen elsewhere.
The prasadam brought back from these places of worship is distributed
among all the workers. |
| The work starts early. The workers, most of
them residents of the nearby village, assemble at the work spot
as early as 2.00 am sometimes, so that they can close work well
before the sun gets really hot. The salt marsh is divided into
hundreds of plots called crystallisers, where concentrated brine
is allowed 12-15 days time to crystallise. During this period,
the brine is agitated with rakes. Once the crystallisation is
complete, the formed salt is removed by scraping. |
| The crystalliser area covers roughly 260 acres,
out of which only 176 acres are used for salt formation, the
rest being ridges, storage places, roads, channels, etc. |
| The brine not released to the crystallisers
is stored in storage ponds, in which it remains open to the
sky, the resultant evaporation helping to increase the concentration,
sometimes to as high as 30° Be. |
| The ‘scrapers’ and ‘rakers’ are entirely different
sets of workers, each a specialised activity. The scrapers were
trained by workers from Thoothukudi when the Vedaranyam Salt
Works was first established. |
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| The salt heaps are covered to protect them
against rain. |
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| The puja at the beginning of the season
(From Chemplast Sanmar archives). |
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| Bittern or mother liquor after salt has
been separated from seawater which is converted to alkaline
bromine solution at Vedaranyam and sent to Chemplast Sanmar,
Mettur, where it is used in production of bromine. |
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| P S Jayaraman, Managing Director, and his
wife Rajeswari Jayaraman take part in the puja (From Chemplast
Sanmar archives). |
Salt/ ABSOL production
details from
1991-1992 to 2002-2003 |
| |
Tonnage |
| Year |
Salt |
ABSOL |
| 1991-1992 |
98895 |
80 |
| 1992-1993 |
88049 |
80 |
| 1993-1994 |
81196 |
95 |
| 1994-1995 |
80124 |
108 |
| 1995-1996 |
80125 |
90 |
| 1996-1997 |
74420 |
84 |
| 1997-1998 |
84491 |
98 |
| 1998-1999 |
60235 |
89 |
| 1999-2000 |
84953 |
85 |
| 2000-2001 |
113046 |
98 |
| 2001-2002 |
102884 |
101 |
| 2002-2003 |
128540 |
122 |
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| Salt Upgradation Plant |
| The raw salt produced in the crystallisers
is then transported to the Salt Upgradation Plant. At the Salt
Upgradation Plant, raw salt containing calcium, magnesium, etc.,
is sent through a conveyor belt to a slurry preparation tank
where it is washed with brine, to remove these impurities. The
salt is then taken to an overhead thickener and passes through
a centrifuge where solid salt is separated from liquid. This
liquid, collected in a pit, is recycled to continue with the
same process. When the impurity level increases, fresh brine
is used. The salt thus formed is emptied directly into trucks
supplying feedstock to the Mettur plant for the manufacture
of caustic soda and chlorine. |
| The fully equipped laboratory at the Salt
Upgradation Plant ensures that the product conforms to the required
quality norms for industrial grade salt. The leftover stock
is stored in closely packed heaps and covered by ‘cudgeon leaves’,
to protect it from the rains during the monsoon season. |
| The bittern or mother liquor that remains
after salt is separated from the sea brine is converted to alkaline
bromine solution by treatment with acid in the ABSOL plant.
The reddish colour of the bittern is attributed to the presence
in it of the marine microalga dunaliella salina—which, in China,
is used in the production of natural carotene, polysaccharides
and Vitamin E. |
| During the rainy season, from September to
December, the production of raw salt comes to a halt, while
the Salt Upgradation Plant activity continues, using the raw
salt from the storage heaps, and deliveries continue. |
| The rain water actually helps reduce the magnesium
content in the storage ponds, but heavy, intermittent rain affects
the production, diluting the brine concentration in the crystallisers. |
| Besides Chemplast Sanmar and Gujarat Heavy
Chemicals Limited, there are several small salt manufacturers
at Vedaranyam, mostly producing edible salt. Vedaranyam is the
second largest salt producer in the state after Thoothukudi. |
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| The finished product being loaded directly
on to the trucks through the conveyor belts of the Salt
Upgradation Plant. |
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| The temple tank (Manikarna tirtham) at
the Vedaranyeswarar temple. |
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| The JCB machine forming salt heaps for
storage. |
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| The Ramar paadam or Rama’s feet at Vedaranyam.
According to mythology, Lord Rama stood on this spot on
a reconnaissance visit to locate Ravana’s fort in Sri
Lanka. |
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| The gopuram of the Vedaranyeswarar temple at
Vedaranyam. This temple is dedicated to the Hindu god Siva and
his consort Parvati. |
| As we enter Vedaranyam, the road bifurcates
the Vedaranyam Wildlife Sanctuary of the Forest Department on
one side and the swamp lands of the Chemplast Salt Works on
the other. We were lucky to spot a number of spotted deer drinking
at a watering hole adjacent to the road, filled daily with water
by the company as one of its contributions to the preservation
of the ecosystem of the region. The spotted deer is usually
shy, and does not leave the more thickly wooded forest to come
to the roadside, unlike the hundreds of blackbuck we saw cavorting,
jumping and running in the open, towards the seashore, leaving
the safety of the woods, drawn by the cool seabreeze. We also
saw wild boar, foxes and a whole herd of wild horses, prominent
in the landscape, apparently coexisting peacefully. The birdlife
on view was however limited to storks, cranes, and smaller birds
like the kuil, as this was not the season for the migratory
birds. |
| Bird and animal life near Vedaranyam |
| The Vedaranyam swamp, situated along the
Coromandel Coast of Tamil Nadu in Tanjore district, extends
over an area of 2400 hectares. Interspersed with numerous small
islets and ponds constructed for production of industrial and
table salt, the swamp is bordered in the north by man-made dykes
of mud, beyond which lie villages and arable land. Larvae, fungi,
fishes and a large number of other organisms which form the
staple diet of shore birds can be found in abundance in salt
ponds. Vedaranyam is home to many rare species of birds. Around
47 species of migratory and non-migratory shore birds have been
recorded here. The region is a birdwatchers’ delight and migratory
birds from all over the world gather at Point Calimere during
October-February. “Asian Wetland News” from Asian Wetland Bureau,
Malaysia has reported that “the functioning of the salt industry
with the formation and use of salt ponds favours shore birds
and other aquatic birds in many ways.” |
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Clockwise: Feral horses, black buck, flamingoes,
black winged stilt, whitebreasted
kingfisher, spoonbills and egrets. |
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