MbPT will now handle oil spills better

Two years after an oil spill off the Mumbai coast contaminated large tracts of mangroves, the state will be finally be better equipped to handle oil spills in the Mumbai harbour from March 2013.

Two years after an oil spill off the Mumbai coast contaminated large tracts of mangroves, the state will be finally be better equipped to handle oil spills in the Mumbai harbour from March 2013.

HT Image

The Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) has floated a tender to appoint an agency to handle offshore oil spills. The Oil Spill Response Centre (OSRC) will be stationed at Jawahar Dweep (Butcher Island) and will be set up at a cost of Rs 33 crore to tackle spills in the harbour limit of MbPT and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).

The need for OSRC gained importance after three oil spills off the Mumbai coast – in August 2010, January 2011 and in August 2011.

On Thursday, HT reported that there has been no regeneration of mangroves in eight of the ten locations affected by the August 2010 oil spill. The report ‘Study on the impact of oil spill on the mangroves of Mumbai and Raigad’ by the Bombay Natural History Society was submitted to the union environment ministry in June.