Oil spill contingency plan in pipeline for Tuticorin Port
Mumbai   10-Sep-2010

An oil spill contingency plan is being finalised, Mr A. Subbiah, Chairman in-charge of Tuticorin Port Trust, has said.

In a statement here, he said that the Tuticorin Port has oil pollution combating equipment of 10 tonnes an hour of skimming.

The Port has facilities like rapid deployment boom of 500 m, permanent boom of 100 m, hydraulic skimmer, 10 tonnes storage tank, oil spill dispersant, work boat, portable dispersant sprayer, hand-pump for transfer of collected oil, oil absorbent pads, etc.

Whenever an oil tanker berths, it is draped with an oil boom so as to contain any oil spill.

Tuticorin Port handled 2.09 lakh tonnes of POL products from April to August. He further said that the Port entered into an MoU with IndianOil and Southern Petro Chemical Industries Corporation Ltd for an oil spill combating facility at the Tuticorin Port in August 2006.

The Port has taken steps to procure oil spill response facilities of Tier-I capability. However, to meet Tier-II and Tier-III response capability requires mobilisation of resources at regional and international levels. The Port's Pollution Control Cell monitors the Port waters regularly to detect any oil spill. An oil spill contingency plan is under finalisation under the direction of the Union Minister of Shipping and the Ministry of Shipping. It is expected that the port shall be free from such environmental hazards by such contingency plan, he added.