Guidelines on handling hazardous cargo soon
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COMMENTS 
The shipping ministry has asked all ports to draw up contingency plans to deal with future oil spills. Early this month, the collision of two cargo vessels MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia–III resulted in a major spill that caused significant environmental damage and restricted access to Mumbai Port and Jawaharlal Nehru Port
The Union Ministry of Shipping will issue guidelines to major ports and state maritime boards to ensure safe and prompt handling of hazardous chemical goods, Union Minister for Shipping G K Vasan said on August 31, 2010.
Last month, two cargo vessels collided off the coast of Mumbai causing a major oil spill, while an unknown ship dumped tonnes of waste oil into the sea off the Goa coast, causing tar balls to wash up onto its famed beaches early this week.
“While the coastguard is equipped and responsible to handle oil spills of significant magnitude, all ports may prepare themselves for addressing smaller spills preferably through contracts with agencies having expertise in oil spill response mechanisms,” Vasan said at a meeting of the Maritime States Development Council (MSDC), in Chennai. The ministry, he said, is also devising a scheme to utilise the oil cess collected by ports for mitigating oil pollution in and around ports.
In the aftermath of a chlorine gas leak at Mumbai Port in July, which sent 118 people to hospital, the shipping ministry is also preparing guidelines to ensure safe handling of hazardous chemicals and goods. “These incidents (the oil spill and chlorine leak) have highlighted the urgent need to enhance the disaster management capabilities and preparedness of ports… The guidelines will be issued to major ports, state maritime boards and maritime states soon,” Vasan said.
Noting that only Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra had constituted maritime boards, Vasan said the ministry would ask the remaining coastal states to constitute boards at the earliest with representations from the shipping ministry, coastguard and Indian navy.
This is urgently required as many major ports have hazardous materials, including explosives, lying on their land. Mumbai Port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Tuticorin Port, Kolkata Dock Complex, New Mangalore Port, Kandla Port and Chennai Port handle dangerous substances despite strict government instructions that such goods should not be kept in ports. Their transportation in open trucks by unscrupulous contractors has also been reported.
Source: The Hindu, September 1, 2010
The Financial Express, September 1, 2010