Updates on Mumbai Oil spill
IOC may take up cleaning of spilled oil near Mumbai. Photo: Bhaskar Paul/India TodayThe Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) may take up cleaning work of the spilled oil in the Arabian Sea near Mumbai from the Environment Department of Maharashtra. A final decision in this regard will be taken at a meeting between Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and the minister for Shipping G.K. Vasan along with the heads of IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in Mumbai on Thursday afternoon.The Maharashtra Government has already started the cleaning work with the help of Coast Guard. Environment Secretary Valsa Nair-Singh held meeting with the Inspector General of Coast Guard S.P.S. Basra on Wednesday to draw up action plan for clean up operations. Joint teams have been formed to organise clean up operation where oil spill is observed on the coast. The teams comprise officials from Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai Collectorate and Coast Guard.
IOC may take up cleaning of spilled oil near Mumbai….Kiran Tare / India Today
The officials of Environment Department collected 43 water samples from 23 locations and found oil contents in the samples collected from Gateway of India, Cuffe Parade, Nariman Point, Geeta Nagar, Elephants Island and Uran."The mangroves at the Vashi creek are also affected after the oil spread there. Our experts said that the oil will wash away with the high tide and there will not be any permanent harm to the mangroves," Nair-Singh said."The MPCB will co-ordinate the funding requirement of all clean up equipments including gloves, gunny bags, plastic brooms, bins etc till the finances are approved by the Government," she said.Ranjit Martin, captain of the ship MSC Chitra which collided with another ship MV Kahlizia on August 7 has revealed that the ship was carrying only five containers which have hazardous substance like pesticides. Earlier, it was reported that the number of containers having hazardous substances was 31. Martin is sure that those five containers are still at the basement of the ship and not have fallen off into the sea.A team of salvage experts from Singapore succeeded in removing 30 containers from the sinking MSC Chitra on Wednesday. The ship was carrying 1200 containers at the time of collision. Out of that around 250 containers containing 500 tonnes of oil fell off in the sea.
