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Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal held a detailed review with DG Shipping, Secretary (Shipping) and other senior officials to assess the urgent measures being undertaken his ministry to address the situation arising from the capsizing of Liberian-flagged 'MSC ELSA III' container ship off the Kerala coast near Kochi.
All 24 crew members of the Liberia-flagged container vessel have been rescued, which capsized around 38 nautical miles southwest off the Kochi coast on Saturday. The 184-metre-long ship had departed from Vizhinjam Port on May 23 and was expected to reach Kochi on May 24. "We are fully committed to ensuring the complete salvage of marine fuel and other hazardous materials being transported in 13 IMDG containers. All crew members have been safely evacuated with the assistance of the Indian Coast Guard," wrote Sarbananda Sonowal on X. "Three ships - ICG Samarth, ICG Saksham and ICG Vikram have been deployed to the affected area. Additionally, the pollution response vessel Sagar Prahari departed from Mumbai today and is en route to the site," the minister wrote. Regular aerial surveillance is being carried out using Dornier aircraft equipped with the MSS 6000 system to monitor any oil spillage. All four company representatives of MSC have arrived in Kochi and have been advised to visit both the Indian Coast Guard and MMD offices. The minister informed that MSC has initiated tracking of all beached containers and is deploying personnel to secure them in place. "Salvors have been engaged and have arrived in Kerala. T&T Salvage is now in Kochi to coordinate the salvage operations. Coordination for container retrieval is ongoing between the salvor's expert team and the local administration," Sonowal said. "We are continuously monitoring the situation through DG (Shipping), Indian Coast Guard, Kerala State Disaster Management Authority, @ndmaindia, MSC & the Salvage Team. All possible measures are being taken to ensure immediate action is taken to protect the coastal environment from oil spills and any risks arising from the breached containers. @dgshipping_IN," the X post added. A few containers from the sunken ship were spotted on the Kollam coast on Monday. The containers, red in colour, were spotted ashore, highlighting potential environmental and navigational hazards. (ANI)
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