AHMEDABAD: In our ongoing series India in The Next Decade running up to the budget, we turn spotlight on one of India's biggest shipbreaking yards - Alang. In Bhavnagar district of Gujarat, Alang has benefited from the turnaround of friendly policies, pollution control, and a stable tax structure. But one thing's still missing - basic infrastructure to piggy-back Alang onto the growth in surrounding areas, such as the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).

Blink, and you might miss Alang, a nondescript little shipping town on western India, unless you're in the business of salvaging ships. This Indian epicenter of "ship-breaking" as it's called went bust for a while, unable to cope with pollution control issues and high steel prices. while a stable tax structure did help better that, the shipbreakers had to battle with global economic turmoil, and steel prices dipping.

No wonder then that Alang's seen an increased stockpile of scrapped vessels anchored down for salvage, those in the industry say they're not looking for hand-outs during the 2010 union budget, But are hopeful for an amicable environment that would allow partnership with the neighbouring ecosystem in order to sustain and continue its status as a significant nerve center for the maritime and steel business

Sandip Shah, President, Bhavnagar Shipping and Steavadors Association (BSASA), says: "Basically, we feel that tax structure, duty structure should remain as it is in the policy declared in 2009, and if they liberalise the exercise it would be better for the steel lobby, especially for the ship breaking and especially for the demolition industry. If there is no hike in duty, these is a re-rollable steel, which goes for real estate, it does not go to any government or infrastrucuture projects, so India is coming up now with all good aspects, so it will definitely boost and help the real estate activities like building construction, etc."

That's not all, other investments are on the drawing board for Bhavnagar district. That's expected if you consider the town's vast coastline and allied port led growth momentum. Investments pegged at about  Rs 11,000 crore could generate around 9,000 jobs in the coming years apart from an separate investment from NTPC in a nuclear power plant of Rs 80,000 crore. But the industry in Gujarat is skeptical about the time-bound execution of these projects.

Sunil Parekh, Infra Committee Head, CII Gujarat Chapter, feels: "These is hardly the sign of the state which has taken these issue very seriously, so when you look at the infrastructure when you look at the national budgets and the various state budgets, while everybody appreciates the fact that infrastructure has to precede development, and yet you find on the ground very little governance or structured approaches to really execute the project, the way China does. China spends in one year, what India wants to spend in 9 years. So the gap is going to widen, and the competence of Indian industry, trade and commerce is at stake."

Alang is one strong contributor to the steel sector of nation, as far as Union Budget 2010 goes, the voice is loud and clear, to connect Alang as far as infrastructure connectivity, in terms of rail and road linkages goes.