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Future oil spill clean-ups may be outsourced, says ministry
The Ministry of Shipping has proposed that all future oil spill clean-ups be outsourced to multinationals.
The Ministry of Shipping has proposed that all future oil spill clean-ups be outsourced to multinationals.
It also proposed a central corpus to be created by major ports pooling in money. It will be used for salvage and clean-up operations. “The proposal will take 15 days to be finalised,” said Rakesh Srivastava, joint secretary (ports).
Officials said it was not possible for ports to buy all the equipment needed to plug and salvage the spread of oil as it costs several hundred crores of rupees.
The responsibility of combating small oil spills would be divided between ports and the Coast Guard. Ports would have to handle oil spills of less than 700 tons.
On Tuesday, 72 canisters of aluminium phosphate and 440 canisters of other pesticides were found and secured. They will be destroyed soon
Two ferry routes, Gateway-Elephanta and Gateway-Mora, were declared safe. Directorate-general of Shipping officials said they sighted two sunken obstructions which, though not dangerous, would be resurveyed shortly.
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