Baalu constitutes inter-ministerial group to review ship safety issues

Union Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Minister T.R. Baalu today announced the constitution of an inter-ministerial group of experts comprising representatives from navy, coast guard and ports to review ship safety issues.

New Delhi, July 4 : Union Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Minister T.R. Baalu today announced the constitution of an inter-ministerial group of experts comprising representatives from navy, coast guard and ports to review ship safety issues.

The group under the chairmanship of Director General Shipping will look into the existing response mechanism and formulate a blue print for strengthening the response system in view of the recent spate of marine accidents on the Indian Coast.

It will also look into the information-sharing, search and rescue and salvage operations, the availability of equipment and vessels. It will submit its report within a fortnight.

Baalu convened a meeting of chairmen of all the major ports and senior officers from the Ministry of Defence, Navy, Coast Guard, Directorate General of Shipping, Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships, and Shipping Corporation of India to take stock of the situation and to further review the measures to be taken in view of the recent spate of marine accidents. This was a follow up of the review held by the Minister recently.

It may be recalled that there have been 13 weather-related marine casualties during the last fortnight, since the onset of monsoon resulting in the rough weather conditions in the Indian coastal areas.

Prima facie the cause of these casualties is the incapacitation of very old vessels due to the inclement weather. The Minister directed that immediate measures should be taken to restrict the operation of old vessels especially during the monsoon. He also asked the concerned agencies to alert their local units so that they can immediately respond in a coordinated manner to such exigencies.

Baalu also reviewed the progress of plan schemes and projects in the major ports. Some of the important projects reviewed were the iron ore and coal terminals at Paradip, container terminal projects at Tuticorin and JNPT, multi-purpose berths at Kandla, dredging projects at JNPT and Ennore.

The traffic handled at the Major Ports in the first quarter in 2007-08 is 123.09 million tonnes, an increase by 14.3 percent over the traffic handled in the corresponding period last year.

ANI