Mumbai port hires Dutch ship to check oil spill

MUMBAI: The government’s apathy towards Coast Guards’ repeated pleas for special ships that help contain oil spill was underscored even as the Mumbai Port Trust was learnt to have engaged a Netherlands-based company to control the environmental damage.

Agencies quoting a senior port official said the Mumbai Port Trust has appointed SMIT Salvage, a Netherlands-based company, to control the oil-spill. Currently, the company is working hard with 11 vessels to look after the operation there, the official said. "We’ve appointed SMIT Salvage... The company is working there with 11 off-shore vessels out of which six vessels were received from Mumbai-based Great Offshore Ltd," the official added.

It was as late as last year that the government sanctioned special ships to contain oil spills, the first of which meant for Mumbai will be commissioned in October. A source in the Coast Guard said, "At present, the Coast Guard uses buckets mounted on helicopters which spray dispersants. The helicopters are sent from INS Shikra in Colaba with divers on it. Two helicopters are used to make six sorties a day and we have sprayed nearly 4,000 litres of dispersants." But the Mumbai Port Trust officials said that the Coast Guard does not have special ships like the US to contain the slick. The special ship will have holds to suck in the spill. Constructed by the ABG shipyard in Surat, it’s currently undergoing modifications in Goa. It will also have special equipment to spray dispersants. The ship will be headed by DIG Manoj Baadkar who heads the anti-pollution unit of Coast Guard. Two other ships will be coming in for the other areas of the country.

On Monday, Coast Guard sent five ships — Sankalp, Sangram, Amrit Kaur, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan and C-145 — to battle the spill, while Kamala Devi was sent to the dock for fitting long arms to spray dispersants, said the official.

The directorate general of shipping’s chief nautical advisor, M M Saggi, said the anti-pollution operation by the Coast Guard is still on. Anti-pollution disposal spray systems are on the job. All coastal districts of Maharashtra are on high alert as the oil slick has spread to the Alibaug and Uran areas, and also close to Elephanta caves.