Mumbai Port to set up facility to tackle oil spills
Following a series of oil spills around the city coast in the last two years, the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) has finally decided to appoint an agency to develop facilities to combat oil spills of 700 tonnes and above, Daily Shipping Times reports.
The National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan ( NOSDCP) stipulates that all ports maintain Tier-I Oil Spill Response (OSR) facilities.
An MbPT official said, "We are putting in a place a system which will ensure swift response to any incidence of oil spill in our waters. As of now, we have to depend on Coast Guard in case of oil spill. The maximum response time has been capped between 30 and 120 minutes depending on the location of the spill."
The MbPT recently floated tenders and invited bids to set up OSR facilities on the city's ports. The INR 33-crore contract is likely to be awarded by July.
The successful bidder will have to set up an Oil Spill Response Center (OSRC), which will be functional at the Marine Oil Terminal ( MOT) on Jawahar Dweep, an island to the south of Elephanta Islands.
The centre will be monitored by trained personnel and specialists for a period of five years.
Within four months of the awarding of the contract, the agency will have to set up the facility, which will include putting in service an OSR vessel and work boat in addition to other equipment like booms, skimmers, oil spill dispersants, storage tanks, etc, to tackle pollution.
