3 days ago
Technical failure in ballast water management could have led to sinking of ship, say officials
Preliminary findings of the probe into the sinking of container vessel MSC ELSA 3 off the Kerala coast with 640 containers on board point to technical failure in ballast water management, which in turn caused the ship to tilt over 20 degrees and sink, officials of the Shipping Ministry and the Mercantile Marine department (MMD) said here on Wednesday.
The officials included Director General of Shipping Shyam Jagannathan; Nautical Advisor to the Government of India Capt. Abul Kalam Azad, Chief Surveyor of the Directorate General of Shipping Ajith Sukumaran, and Principal Officer of the MMD's Kochi office J. Senthil Kumar.
Mr. Jagannathan said none of the 50 containers that were washed ashore along the 120-km coastline of Alappuzha, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram during the past few days had any hazardous cargo like calcium carbide. Most containers were empty, while the others had cotton bales and plastic pellets. The containers will be recovered in two days and disposed of.
'No sabotage'
The prime focus now is on recovering oil and other pollutants from the vessel, followed by containers which are said to have cargo like ethylene polymers. The ship's owner firm MSC has roped in global firms with expertise in retrieving such cargo, while the Indian Coast Guard's specialised oil spill response team has been deployed to prevent damage to marine resources. There are internationally binding norms to settle insurance claims and compensate fishers from the Kerala coast for their loss of livelihood, he said and added that prima facie there was no reason to suspect sabotage.
Terming the sinking incident as the largest along the Indian coast, Mr. Sukumaran said that preliminary inference pointed to mechanical failure in ballast water management, a safety precaution that is taken in all ships to overcome the effect of 'rolling and pitching' while on the sea, and the subsequent loss of power. This could have been caused by the malfunctioning of the ballast management valves.
Old ships
On several shipping firms deploying old vessels to Indian ports (the sunk ship was 28 years old), he said many stakeholders had expressed concern about the matter. Steps were under way to revise safety and other norms in this regard.
The officials said that although the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) had not issued any age-related norms for ships, there were concerns about the operational efficiency of older vessels.
Mr. Azad explained how a team of salvage specialists, naval architects, chemists, oil spill specialists, and divers was deployed to salvage the vessel and the containers, and to contain the effects of oil spillage and pollution. A total of four tugs have been mobilised as part of this. On the delay in officially declaring the contents of 13 containers having 'hazardous' cargo, he said the owner of the ship had said that they contained 'rubber chemicals' which were non-hazardous.
While five of them were on the ship's deck, eight were secured within the vessel's 'cargo hold' area. According to the plan, oil spill in the vicinity of the sinking spot can be cleared by July 3. The ship was carrying 367 tonnes of very low sulfur fuel oil and 84 tonnes of marine diesel fuel.
