India, B'desh Coast Guards conducting exercise on pollution

The Indian Coast Guard is conducting a bilateral table-top exercise on maritime pollution response with Bangladesh Coast Guard at the regional headquarters (North East) of the ICG here today.

ICG (NE) commander Inspector General K S Sheoran said the two-day exercise, that began today, is being conducted in the backdrop of the MoU signed between India and South Asian Cooperation for Environment Protection (SACEP) approved by the Union Cabinet in May.

The Bangladesh Coast Guard delegation was led by Captain M Ehsanullah Khan, Commanding officer, BCGS.

"During the exercise, a scenario was developed wherein one Bangladesh flag oil tanker collided with an Indian flag vessel resulting into developing a hole in the vessel which led to discharge of huge heavy fuel oil into sea," he said.

Officials of both the neighbouring countries participated in brainstorming for formulating actions to prevent the oil reaching the shore so that sensitive bio-reserve of Sundarbans could be saved, Sheoran said.

In addition to the exercise, both the sides discussed various common maritime issues and capacity building of Bangladesh Coast Guard through training and expertise sharing on maritime issues.

Incidentally, an Indian flag container vessel "SSL Kolkata" caught fire in the Bay of Bengal on June 13 and drifted close to the Indo-Bangladesh international maritime boundary and the Sundarbans, before it was anchored by Navy commandos and mariners of the vessel.

Altogether 22 mariners of the vessel were rescued by ICGS Rajkiran.

Salvage operations of the vessel are on, ICG (NE) spokesperson assistant commandant Chitra Biswas said.

The Coast Guard spokesperson, however, said the table-top exercise has nothing to do with the accident encountered by the container ship.