The Coast Guard on Sunday sounded an alert over the oil spill off the Mumbai coast as the slick covered a large area, up to five nautical miles, from the spot where two ships collided on Saturday morning.
The spillage from MSC Chitra, after it collided with MV Khalijia-III, is estimated to be three to four tonnes an hour. Aggravating the situation is the continual falling of containers from the cargo of MSC Chitra, which is sinking after tilting precariously.
“The oil has spread up to Uran, Mandwa, Elephanta Island and Butcher Island. Oil is still being discharged. The ship was carrying about 26,000 tonnes of oil, including 283 tonnes of diesel and 88 tonnes of lube oil. About 200 containers have fallen into the sea and there are 32 containers with dangerous cargo. A total of 1,219 containers were aboard. Our main concern is that the vessel position should not deteriorate further,” Coast Guard Commandant S.S. Dasila told The Hindu over phone.
The Coast Guard did an aerial survey of the collision site on Sunday morning and conducted spraying operations. It deployed five additional ships (Sankalp, Amrit Kaur, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Kamla Devi and C-145). They joined the Coast Guard [vessel] AOPV Sangram, which was deployed on Saturday night.
FIR registered
PTI reports:
An FIR was registered on Sunday against the captains and crew members of the ships under sections of the IPC and Environment Protection Act. This followed a complaint by the Coast Guard.
