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Palghar police on alert after containers from cargo drift into Arabian Sea
The message directed that all Marine and Bay police stations in Palghar district need to be on a lookout for such containers.
Maharashtra’s Palghar police were put on alert on Monday following a message from the higher authorities about the probable drifting of some containers from a cargo ship in the Arabian Sea, news agency PTI reported, citing officials.
As per the police message circulated on Monday, 48 containers fell from the ship 'MV Phonnix 15' after it crossed 20 nautical miles from Salah in Oman. The Directorate General of Shipping said that 48 containers from the vessel fell into the sea. Out of these 48 containers, 8 have been recovered so far. The remaining containers have either sunk or are suspected to have drifted towards the shore, the message said.
The message directed that all Marine and Bay police stations in Palghar district need to be on a lookout for such containers. The Palghar districts, including Safala, Kelva, Satpati, Tarapur, Wangaon, Dahanu, and Gholwad, are instructed to remain vigilant.
Further, the message instructed that if any floating container or related materials are found by local fishermen or villages in the coastal area or patrol teams, the information should be conveyed to the Indian Navy or Coast Guard and the Palghar police control room.
In such a case, the officer-in-charge of the security branch of Palghar police should be informed over the telephone without any delay, the message said. The Palghar police have set up control rooms and are on continuous surveillance of the Konkan coastline. They are coordinating with the central maritime agencies to ensure safety and security.
Earlier in June, a cargo ship containing hazardous cargo caught fire about 78 nautical miles off Kerala’s Beypore port. The 268-metre Singapore-flagged container vessel MV Wan Hai 503 was carrying 22 crew members. Indian coast guards
In May this year, Kerala authorities were on high alert after containers from a Liberian-flagged cargo ship that sank off the state's coast began washing ashore. The state had to declare a similar emergency then as well.
