New Port Project Likely Near Dahanu
The city's cosatline has suffered much damage from oil spills in the past, but future incidents are unlikely to cause it much damage. The Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust harbours got the country's first Tier-I Oil Spill Response facility on Friday .
Shipping minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the facility to coincide with World Environment Day. “I have also directed, both Mumbai Port Trust and JNPT to recycle water to make the Mumbai sea clean. The used water will not enter BMC pipelines which carry sewage into the sea.“ A Tier-I facility is usually close to a harbour.
A memorandum of understanding was also signed between JNPT and the Maharashtra Maritime board to set up a satellite port near Vadhawan, Dahanu. Gadkari said, “No land will be acquired, nor will the livelihood of fishermen disturbed as the port will be built four nautical miles into the sea through reclamation.“ The site has a draft of 18 meters to allow berthing of big vessels. JNPT will hold a 74% stake in the project. The Maritime Board, owned by the state government, will hold the rest.
MbPT chairman Ravi Parmar said, “ Around 25 billion tonnes of oil and chemicals is handled at Mumbai Port trust but it did not have mechanism to handle an oil spill . This facility, set-up at cost of Rs 30 crore, will help in mitigating disaster.“
The facility will be handled by Sadhav Shipping. Vedant Choudhury of the shipping firm said, “Maximum response time after an alert is received would be 30-40 minutes.“
No comments:
Post a Comment