Pay for the mess

New Delhi, March 28: The shipping ministry is planning to amend the country’s Merchant Shipping Act to make it mandatory for the owners of ships that sink in Indian waters to bear the cost of removing the wreckage from the sea-bed.

Shipping secretary D. T. Joseph told The Telegraph that there is a serious lacuna in the Merchant Shipping Act as it does not contain any provision for holding the owners of sunken vessels responsible for removing the wreckage from Indian waters. Wreck removal is a very costly exercise and the government has often ended up paying as much as Rs 26 crore for removing wreckage from the seabed.

In advanced countries such as the UK, it is mandatory for the owners of sunken vessels to bear the cost of removing the wreckage from the sea. The Indian Merchant Shipping Act will now be amended to bring in this provision.

Joseph said while the Indian Major Port Trust Act does provide for fixing the responsibility of wreck removal from the harbour area on the owners of sunk ships, this was not applicable to vessels sinking in Indian waters beyond the area covered by the major ports.

Joseph said even some of the major ports were found to have been lax in the past in enforcing this provision. The shipping ministry was now highlighting the importance of this provision and had asked the port authorities to be more alert on this count.

All ships entering the country’s major ports are required to have a protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance that covers the expenses of wreck removal in case of a mishap. However, while the shipping company may be a member of the P&I club, there is no provision in the Merchant Shipping Act that states that the owner is responsible for removing the wreckage in Indian waters outside the port area.

This loophole will now be plugged so that the P&I cover is applicable to wreck removal in Indian waters that stretch beyond the harbours of major ports and their approach channels. The amendment will introduce a new provision that will specifically state that the ship owner is responsible for removing the wreckage from Indian waters. This will assume significance as many small ports are also being developed and shipping activity is bound to increase in their vicinity.

Wreck removal also acquires importance in view of the increasing activity in the telecom and petroleum sectors for laying submarine cables and oil pipelines that cover vast stretches of the sea.

There is a danger of these expensive installations being damaged if the wreckage is left in the sea and not removed in time. The Indian Navy also carries out various exercises at sea and has a submarine fleet as well.