KOCHI: Two weeks after MSC Elsa 3 sank into the depths of the Arabian Sea around 14.6 nautical miles off the Kerala coast, the state’s coastal waters have witnessed another mishap involving a container ship.
Wan Hai 503, a Singapore-flagged vessel that set sail from Colombo on June 7 to its next port of call, Nhava Shara in Mumbai, encountered a massive fire on board after an explosion in one of the containers.
While four crew members went missing and five others sustained burns, the incident raises many questions regarding maritime safety, precautionary measures while transporting hazardous cargo, and shipping of undeclared or misdeclared cargo. “Apart from polluting the marine environment, these incidents have brought humiliation to our maritime sector,” former Coast Guard director general Prabhakaran Paleri told TNIE.
“After the MSC Elsa 3 incident, there was total confusion on the procedure to follow during such accidents. We should have a contingency plan. DG (Directorate General) Shipping, Kerala government, and the Kerala Maritime Board should work in coordination.” He said the government should form an inquiry commission to look into various aspects of the incident.
“As a former enforcement officer, I know the maritime sector witnesses many frauds. We have to find out whether it was an accident or a fraud. They should have registered a case and arrested the captain of Elsa 3,” Prabhakaran said.
Supporting the argument, maritime law expert and former Kerala Maritime Board chairman V J Mathew said the state government, instead of blaming Centre, should have directed the police to register a case.
“The argument that the incident occurred outside territorial waters does not hold water. It is for the state police to register a case. The shipping company, Vizhinjam port authority and the state government have refused to publish the cargo manifest despite a direction from the court. This points to the chances of carrying undeclared or misdeclared cargo on board. A disaster might happen due to rough sea conditions or human error. We need to probe it to find out the factors that led to the incident,” Mathew said.
He said the government has taken a soft approach towards the shipping firm, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), hoping for its support in developing Vizhinjam as a major port.
“We cannot compromise on safety issues. A case should be registered against MSC Elsa 3 (captain) for rash and negligent navigation. Similar is the case with Wan Hai 503. We have to find out which cargo has triggered the explosion and whether it was undeclared. More containers have fallen into the sea, posing a threat of pollution, and we cannot ignore it,” he said.
Captain Philip Mathews, who has two decades of sailing experience, also felt it intriguing that the government has not registered a case in the MSC Elsa 3 incident. He reminded that the state had registered a case against Italian ship Enrica Lexie in the shooting incident in which two fishermen were killed in 2012.
“We cannot declare a vessel unsafe considering its age. The determining factor is whether it is flagged, clubbed, and regulated properly. The Kerala coast, from Kozhikode to Thiruvananthapuram, witnesses heavy maritime traffic as vessels on three routes converge here. This increases the possibility of mishaps,” he said.