Mumbai oil spill: Normal shipping could start in 2-3 days

Excerpts from India Business Hour on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » RELATED NEWS Navy, coast guard containing oil spill near Mumbai Oil spill off Mumbai harbour, traffic suspended

Traffic has been suspended at the Mumbai Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) harbour since Sunday following a collision between two ships, which resulted in a massive oil spill off the coast.

The Bombay Port Trust was shut yesterday. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Rahul Asthana, Chairman, Mumbai Port Trust, speaks about the oil spill.

Here is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with Rahul Asthana on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: What is your assessment of this oil spill, how has it affected traffic at the Bombay Port?

A: It is not the oil spill that is affecting the traffic at Mumbai port or JNPT port for that matter. The problem is the containers, which have slipped off, around 250 of them from the vessel, are floating and some of them have submerged in the channel. So, we have decided to stop all shipping for the time being.

The salvers are working at it in terms of removing the containers which lie at the bottom of the channel. We expect that in the next two-three days, we would certainly be able to deal with the situation and normal shipping could start again.

Q: Can you give us some sense of how it has hampered inbound traffic? How long do you think will it take to get things up and running there?

A: The impact is not just on the ports, we certainly lose a lot of business, but the impact is also on the shipping lines who would incur tremendous demurrage cost because ships are waiting outside. Right now as we speak around 18 ships are waiting to enter both the ports i.e. JNPT and the MbPT and then equal number of 16-18 ships are waiting to get out. So, the losses are tremendous and ofcourse the insurance companies would have to look at this and claim would be filed against them.

Q: You have also appointed a Netherlands based company called SMIT salvage to fix this environmental fallout, what is the initial feedback that you have received from them?

A: The environmental, the oil spill is being dealt by the coastguard. They are using about five-six ships, a couple of helicopters to spray chemicals to disperse the oil slick. It has moved eastwards and approaching the coasts of Uran and that side. It has also moved towards Butcher Ireland, so that is a situation today. We understand between 400 and 500 tonne of oil has been spilt out right now.

Q: What communication have you sent out to shipping companies so far?

A: We would like to say that in the next two-three days, we would certainly be able to remove all the containers and the shipping companies, the normal operations could start.