Pay for damages, ship owner told

The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), owners of the ship MSC Chitra, will have to get its act together soon.

The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), owners of the ship MSC Chitra, will have to get its act together soon.

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The state government and the two ports — Mumbai Port Trust and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust — issued notices to the company on Tuesday asking it to set up a time-bound program for salvage operations and pay for all the ecological damages caused by the ship’s collision with another vessel.

MSC Chitra had collided with another vessel, MV Khalijia III, on August 7 causing containers to topple over into the sea and 879 metric tonnes of oil to spill. Some of the containers contained hazardous chemicals and pesticides that, along with the oil, destroyed mangroves and caused damage to marine life.

“Considering that we need to open up the channel by the beginning of September, they need to speed up the salvage process. We have also asked them to pay for all the activities including the cleaning of the shore, and the ports on beachfronts across the state,” said State Ports Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, who reviewed the salvage operations with the Director General of Shipping on Wednesday.

Although the exact amount to be spent on these activities is not known, Vikhe-Patil said the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board that is assessing the damage the incident has caused to the environment will compute the amount.

Vikhe-Patil also expressed concern over the fact that the Ganpati festival is less than a month away and idols are immersed off the coast. “We need the beach cleaning activities to be completed by then,” he said.

According to the information provided by the office of the DG Shipping no fresh containers have been spotted in the navigation channel. In all, 80 vessels have been piloted out of the harbour and 93 vessels brought in after the collision.