Shipping Min plan for oil spill

The shipping ministry has asked maritime states to prepare an oil spill contingency plan, in the wake of the recent oil spill off Mumbai coast. The ministry is planning to devise a scheme for utilising oil cess collected by ports for providing assistance to mitigate oil pollution at ports.

“The Coast Guard is equipped and responsible to handle oil spill of significant magnitude. At the same time, ports should also prepare themselves to address oil spills, preferably through contracts with agencies that have expertise in oil spill response mechanism,” said Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan at the 12th meeting of Maritime States Development Council in Chennai.

Ports collect 50 paise a tonne of imported crude as oil cess. “This is only preparatory work. Polluters must be asked to pay if there is any pollution in the ports,” said shipping secretary K Mohandoss. Meanwhile, the ministry, in consultation with maritime states, is also planning to formulate a policy on coastal shipping for giving adequate incentives, envisaging an annual growth of 10 per cent in port traffic.