The Hindu Business Line : Shipwrecks posing threat to movement at Mumbai port

GHOST ships are usually found in seafarers' lore. But a few of them haunt the entrance to the Mumbai port, twisted wrecks left in their watery graves by unscrupulous owners.

Eight merchant ships, some carrying hazardous cargo, have sunk at the Mumbai port mouth in the past six years and their owners have abandoned them without regard to either the safety of the environment or the threat they pose to other ships plying the narrow channel.

"Right now, the wreckages that dot the Arabian Sea close to the port may not be posing a major threat to movement of ships, but some more wreckages could result in a serious problem," said a port official.

A source said that ships entering or exiting the port are warned of the lurking threat so that they steer clear of the unseen wreckages.

The problem is more serious for the Indian Navy, whose warships and submarines ply the area. Warships and submarines carry sensitive equipment on-board, including sensors that run alongside the outward wall of the vessels. Even a mild collision could cause major problems, a Naval source said.

Fortunately, Naval ships have sophisticated underwater obstacle tracking systems, which enable its warships to stay clear of them, the source added.

Apart from the threat to ship movement, the wreckages are also an environmental hazard.

When MV Arcadia sank on June 19, 1997 it spilled huge amounts of sulphur that it was carrying into the sea. The Directorate-General of Shipping had then taken a serious note of the incident. Similarly, a Panamanian vessel owned by Umin Al Quwain Petroleum Co Ltd, carrying about 700 tonnes of naptha worth Rs 3 crore, sank near the port a year back.

The vessel had reached Mumbai port on May 3. After waiting off the coast for six days, it developed a technical snag and sunk close to the entrance channel to the port. The hazardous wreckage still lies at the bottom of the sea.

Salvaging ships is a high-cost affair and most ship-owners prefer to abandon the vessels. A source said that they manage to wriggle out of the responsibility of salvaging ships by taking the matter to court or simply entangling it in red tape. "Because of the bureaucratic hurdles, it is difficult to penalise the ship-owners and compel them to clear the wreckages," an official said.