CHENNAI: The oil spill has left 24.06 km of Chennai coastal line polluted so far, according to the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).
This was revealed in the prediction assessment from INCOIS, submitted to Indian Coast Guard (ICG) that is spearheading the clean-up drive in Chennai coastline. It was estimated that 7.1 km of coastline is affected due to the heavy beaching of fuel oil on January 28. Within 24 hours, 13.1 km of coastline was affected, which extended to 24.06 km by Tuesday.
INCOIS has set its own oil spill trajectory model and predicted the oil drift. The model was run from January 28 from 4 am to 4 am. The fate of the spilled pollutant is also estimated.
The prediction was made based on the data provided by MT Dawn Kanchipuram, which claimed 2 metric tonnes of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) - Bunker Oil - had spilled following the collision. However, it is not yet clear if the claims of the vessel management could be completely relied upon. As on Tuesday, 1.1 metric tonnes has beached, 0.6 metric tonne has evaporated and 0.3 metric tonne is floating, TM Balakrishnan Nair, head, Information Services Group of INCOIS told Express.
In a new twist, due to the change in dynamics of wave currents, the pollutant is likely to move northwards on February 1-2, which means the Marina beach would come under a second round of attack.