The Indian Coast Guard Station at Krishnapatnam Port demonstrated its readiness to contain oil spills in the day-to-day maritime operations during a mock drill conducted as part of the port’s second pollution response exercise on Thursday. It was conducted under the supervision of the pollution response officer and teams of Coast Guard at Visakhapatnam and Chennai, with the coordination of Coast Guard Station at Krishnapatnam.
The objective of the exercise was to reinforce response mechanisms at the respective ports and enable the stake-holders to fine-tune their responses that would be required in such eventualities by improving coordination and communication with different agencies.
Speaking on the occasion, Pollution Response Officer Commandant M.D. Abbas said that as the nodal agency for environment protection in maritime zones of India, the Indian Coast Guard was the central coordinating authority for responding to oil spills in Indian waters as per its National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan.
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A robust national system for oil spill response was required as 75 per cent of our oil imports were through the sea. This was perceived as important with India being a major economy. Asst Commandant B.D. Gaikwad, Deputy Officer-in-Charge, PRT (East), said their responsibility was for training, reviewing and joint inspection of the pollution response capabilities of the ports and all stake-holders in the area of jurisdiction in the event of oil spills.
This exercise on pollution response is conducted every year by all stake-holders including Krishnapatnam port which has already emerged as a major commercial hub of marine activity. He said that the port was geared up for oil spill response of TIER-I capabilities. The Indian Coast Guard Station (ICGS) Krishnapatnam got commissioned on June 18, 2012 and it has jurisdiction over the three coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh namely Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore.