Merchant vessel wants to offload cargo at JNPT

Two weeks after MV Nord Lake collided with the INS Vidhyagiri, the merchant vessel has approached the Bombay high court to get its perishable cargo offloaded at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).

Two weeks after MV Nord Lake collided with the INS Vidhyagiri, the merchant vessel has approached the Bombay high court to get its perishable cargo offloaded at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).

HT Image

MV Nord Lake, collided with INS Vidhyagiri on January 30 near Sunk Rock Light House off the Mumbai coast.
Sea Consortium Shipping (India) Private Limited, the agent of MV Nord Lake, has filed a petition in the high court seeking permission to unload its cargo belonging to a third party at the JNPT.

The company filed its petition through its counsel Prashant Pratap and advocates Rishi Bhuta and Manoj Khatri. A division bench of justice AM Khanwilkar and justice AR Joshi has scheduled the petition for hearing on February 21.

The petition said the shipping company is concerned about the cargo laden on board consisting of 775 export containers loaded at JNPT out of which 21 are reefer containers with cargo which is perishable in nature comprising of fruit, vegetables and meat products.

The cargo was loaded on MV Nord Lake for being carried from JNPT to Jebel Ali/ Dammam Ports.

“The cargo on vessel MV Nord Lake is of perishable nature and belongs to diverse Indian exporters who have contractual obligations to fulfill towards their overseas buyers and is required to be offloaded at JNPT for loading on another vessel for onward carriage,” states the petition.

Seeking the release of the cargo, the petition states that the “cargo on vessel MV Nord Lake is not a part of the incident which had resulted in filing the FIR.” Also, the Indian Navy, at whose instance the FIR is lodged, has given NOC, adds the petition.