VietNamNet Bridge – The decision to relocate the Cau Trang coal sifting factory out of the residential quarter in Hong Ha ward of Ha Long City has been announced.

Under the decision, the factory would be relocated in a place which is 12 kilometers far from the center of the city. The relocation has been programmed for the last many years, because the industrial production activities may spoil the tourism city.

However, experts have doubts about the feasibility of the plan, saying that this could be one more wrong decision made by the local authorities. It would be necessary to install a new sifting system which would be very costly. Meanwhile, it’s still unclear about the efficiency of the plan.

Especially, the factory, which needs to be removed because it causes environmental pollution, would cause pollution in the new place, because it would be located on Cua Luc riverhead.

The plan which gobbles up money

The report by the Ha Long City’s authorities showed that the new factory would cover an area of 38.9 hectares which would include a finished coal product storehouse, the main sifting unit, the production supporting area and other works.

The Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) has committed that the factory would use modern coal sifting technology and the closed sludge treatment system.

Experts have calculated that the construction of the new factory alone would cost 2200 billion dong. However, the total expenses of the plan would be higher, if counting on the loss to the natural resources estimated at 1125 billion dong, when the factory would encroach on a mine which is under exploitation.

Under the production plan, four coal companies including Hon Gai, Nui Beo, Ha Tu and Ha Lam would exploit 9 million tons of crude coal by 2020, while the designed sorting-out capacity is just 4 million tons a year.

As such, the new factory would be able to sort out 40 percent of the total ore output of the four companies. Meanwhile, the other 60 percent would go through dry sorting out at the mines.

The majority of the coal exploited in the Ha Long area are low quality products, which can only satisfy the demand of the Quang Ninh thermopower plant, which consumes 50 percent of the output. The other 30 percent of the output is provided to Thang Long and Ha Long cement companies, and the remaining 20 percent has been sold to paper and fertilizer producers.

The experts have also pointed out that the cost of sorting out at the new factory would be four times higher than the cost of sifting right at the mines. As such, if a company has 3 million tons of coal sorted out at the factory, it would have to spend the additional sum of 300 billion dong a year.

One more wrong decision?

In fact, the coal plant was once removed from the central area to the Hong Ha ward, 8 kilometers far from Ha Long City.

As such, the plan has been relocated two times for the same purpose of separating the production area from residential quarter. However, experts have pointed out that the factory has just moving from this corner to the other corner of the city, while the problem cannot be settled to the every root. This time the factory plans to move to the area, where the Cao Xanh – Ha Khanh sea encroaching urban area is taking shape.

Meanwhile, Bui Anh Dung, Director of the Hon Gai Coal Company, the owner of the Cau Trang factory, has affirmed that the current environment problem can be solved with just a small sum of money, which means that no need to relocate the current factory.

Source: Lao dong