Little Joys of Life

When we were expecting to reach ennore minor port, the bus dropped us at the gates of Coromandel Fertilisers factory. Puzzled at the location, I inquired my dad and he said when the higher level people at Coromandel Fertilisers knew about our visit, they were happy enough to invite us for snacks at their campus. [Naatla innum nallavanga neraya per irukkaaingappa ;)]

We gathered at the place where they had made seating arrangements for us. They served sweet, mixture and juices. By the time we had snacks they explained briefly about their company. Looks like earlier the company was owned by EID Parry group and was taken over by Murugappa group lately.

The interesting part came later. They explained about their method of importing ammonia (which is one of the major source for producing their fertilisers). As road transportation has its own risks they could not transport ammonia that way. They had to go for rail transportation. But this costed them a fortune as they also had to pay for the empty boxes. Then they had implemented this new strategy (first time in India). They had laid a pipe under sea (for 1.8 kms) and they transport ammonia to their factory directly from the ship.

This is a single pipe with no joints and was imported from Denmark. Looks like there is a special jet ship to lay this pipe in the sea. The theory was simple(at least seemed to, when we heard it). When you stand in sea water, sand gives space for your legs and as waves comeback, your legs are covered by sand. Similar strategy is used in laying the pipe. The jet ship will be carrying this pipe and as it moves faster the sand gives the space. As the pipe is laid there, sand covers over the pipe. I thought if I could watch it in a video or live, it would be more of a visual treat ;)

They expect a maximum of 10 shipments a year. One day earlier to the ship's arrival, a diver will go into the sea and bring the hose (a connector to the pipe. Since the ship will be moving in waves, they cannot connect directly to the pipe) up and leave it. The next day when the ship arrives they connect this hose to the ship and ammonia is transferred via the pipe. Ammonia is transferred in liquid state and to avoid it from converting to gas state they maintain the temperature of pipe at -33 degrees. The pipe has 7 layers to avoid the fluctuation in temperature.

With all these informations I was more eager to watch the location and when we went there it was just like another sea shore filled with rocks along the shore. They asked to see in the middle of sea - 4 yellow coloured buoyancy's were there (at a distance approximately more than 1.5 kms.. avvvvvvvv). When the ship arrives they will stop at that location and tie it to the buoyancy's and connect to the hose. As there were no ships, we could see only the buoyancy's. With that our trip came to an end and we all started our journey back to home.

This part doesn't have much pics as I was not sure if we can take any snaps inside the factory. I got the following picture from my father's collection. Looks like this was taken when a ship came to deliver ammonia.

Attending a live music concert had always been my lifetime dream but never came true till date. I have never even told about this dream to many peoples. Always these concerts are held in the evenings and end at late nights which is one main reason I cant go with friends. With my parents - it would be another dream. As they both were working and father being transferred mostly to some other place. They always used to tell me to go out with my friends (for movies, beach, theme parks.. ) as they dint want me to miss out those fun just because they cant take me out :)

Once we got tickets for Shankar Mahadevan's concert held at Anna university as part of their cultural programme (Obviously, OC Tickets provided by office). But unfortunately we were not able to make it on that day :( So, for all these years it was like, I want to go but not sure how / when it will happen.


And finally, the day has come. Just a few hours back my father called up and completely surprised me by telling he got few passes for AR Rahman's live concert on 11th October. I am extremely thrilled and eagerly waiting for sunday now ;) My father said he will also come with me for the concert. So no worries about the location or late night travel :P

When we reached Ennore major port (Major ports are the one's that are directly under Govt.'s control and minor ports are the one's that are under the control of state board) we were doubtful whether any ships would be available during our visit. Luckily there were 2 ships. One was named Tamil Anna (Poombuhar shipping Corporation) and the other one was from some other country. I dint knew which country it belonged to. But both the ships had Indian Flag. It looks like to whichever destination the ship is traveling, it needs to hoist the destination country's flag in it.

Apart from that there will be an Ensign flag on the ship. Each shipping corporation will have its own ensign flag. one-fourth of this ensign flag should have the shipping company's national flag embedded.

The Tamil Anna ship was unloading coal into the conveyor track, which directly moves coal to the Thermal power plant at Ennore.



The other ship was loading iron ore from a barge. Since the barge was on the other side we couldn't see it :( But we were able to see the cranes lifting the iron ore from the barge and loading it into the ship.


Next we moved to the signal station. The control room was at 6th floor. As it was too small and was covered with glass windows couldn't take snaps from there. Came back to 2nd floor and took few snaps :)


When we came back from signal station time was 1 PM. So our next target was for lunch. Lunch was arranged by L&T [L&T Shipbuilding. Bus arrangement was also provided by them only :)]. Imagine having lunch @ seashore at a pleasant climate. That too Saravana Bhavan's food brought specially for us (They had arranged to get it there at ard 12 PM). Haiyooooo.. The food was like devamirtham !;) As per Aalavandhan's request here goes the menu - Chappathi with chenna, sweet pongal, sambar rice, tamarind rice, curd rice, potato chips, pickle and aalo fry. Finally they also provided juices Pepsi/Miranda/7-up of our choice. Post lunch, we spent some time at the sea shore enjoying nature :)



Then we started our journey towards our next location - Ennore Minor port.

To be continued..

Two weeks back my father told me that they are planning for a family trip to Ennore port and whether I would be interested to visit the same. Who would say a NO?? Immediately I nodded Yes and yesterday morning we were all set for the trip.

We were supposed to assemble at my dad's office at 7AM. His office is not new to me as I always have the habit of visiting his office for some reason or the other. Since its a govt office you don't have strict rules about visitors. And my father being one of the senior officer I was always treated with a red carpet welcome ;) A visit to my mom's office would be completely different. We can go there only during Ayudha pooja celebration. But that would be a more friendly environment since everyone is of equal role and friends for almost 3 decades now. I enjoy being in both environments :)

We (dad, mom & myself) reached dad's office at around 6.50 AM . As people arrived one by one there were introduction between families and it was good to see people of various ages. Starting from a 1 yr old kid to 50 + years oldies :P. Breakfast arrived at 7.30AM from Hotel Ananda. After completing our breakfast, we were asked to come down and board the bus. There were totally 3 buses. And each bus had an in-charger. My dad was in-charge for the third bus and hence we had no other choice. Had to go only for the third one :)


The first destination we reached was CWDL (Chennai Water Desalination Ltd) at Kattupalli. As the name says, they desalinate the sea water and convert it into drinking water. Looks like they are still in testing phase and guaranteed that by Jan 2010 this plant will be completely on the GO. They said that the production cost per litre is around 48.6 paise and the target is to produce 100 Million litres per day. We were taken through each phase of the process.


As explained to us, Initially they take sea water and fill it into a tank. While doing so, the chemical Ferric chloride is added to sea water. When the person said Ferric chloride my mind was thinking Whether it is FeCl₃ or Fe₃Cl :)). After this the water is agitated (they said its a natural agitation as the path of the water flowing is set like a snake) and then it passes through two stages - Gravity settler and Gravity sand filter. After this the water is pumped to the final station where the incoming is just salt water (all other particles in the water have been completely removed in the initial phases including the chemical added earlier). At this place they use the concept of reverse osmosis to separate salt from water. They said there are 7 filters which is involved in this reverse osmosis process and finally the outcome is pure desalinated water. We also tasted the water and it was actually as good as the outcome of any water purifier (only taste and clarity :P Other technical details me the no idea :)) ).


For people like me who do not know what is an osmosis process, they explained that water (lighter density) when we drink gets mixed with blood (higher density) in our body. This is called osmosis process. Hence in reverse osmosis process they apply pressure to the salt water and after passing through the 7 filters with this pressure the salt is completely removed from water. It was actually more like an educational trip than a casual trip. But still it was nice to know these things. Then we started to our next location - Ennore Major Port.



To be continued..