The Indian Coast Guard continued clean-up operations at the Kamarajar Port in Ennore, where nearly two tonnes of oil leaked into the sea while being transferred from a merchant ship on Sunday morning.
The Coast Guard’s dedicated pollution-control vessel, Samudra Pehredar , arrived at the port on Monday afternoon after being summoned from Visakhapatnam to help in the clean-up operations.
The ship was deployed at the site at around 3 p.m. on Monday.
“A Coast Guard helicopter was also deployed simultaneously to monitor the situation. Samudra Pehredar is currently undertaking the clean-up ops and an update on the oil slick on the sea is expected on Tuesday morning,” a source told The Hindu .
Fine likely
The source further added that the merchant ship MT Coral Stars is unlikely to be allowed to leave the port till the clean-up is completed. “A fine might be imposed on the company operating the ship, but those issues will be dealt with after the oil is cleaned up,” the source said.
Oil industry sources claimed that over 80% of spilt oil had been removed. The port and TNPCB have asked that the cleaning be speeded up since rain has been forecast. Meanwhile, there is no issue with availability of fuel or LPG stocks as bottling plants have enough stock of LPG and crude oil is received from the Chennai port, the sources added.
The Coast Guard also issued a notice under Section 356 (J) of Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 to Atlantic Shipping Pvt Ltd, Chennai, that had chartered the ship.
Interestingly, the time of the incident was mentioned as 5.35 a.m. in the notice, while the press release issued on Sunday put the time at 4.03 a.m.
“Initial assessment revealed that the port had taken a few measures to contain the oil spill. However, the ship and her agents have not yet taken suitable measures to remove the oil spill of approx 01 tonne of fuel oil,” S. Chandola, Commandant, Regional Fisheries and Environment Officer for Commander, Coast Guard Region (East), said in the notice.
The Coast Guard has advised the shipping company to undertake all the remedial actions mentioned in the notice.
( With inputs from Deepa H. Ramakrishnan)
