“The 2 incidents carry into sharp focus the broader regulatory blind spot surrounding container delivery, which, in contrast to oil tankers, stays outdoors the purview of complete international legal responsibility frameworks – regardless of the environmental and infrastructural dangers they now usually current,” the official mentioned.
“Container ships like ‘MSC ELSA-3’ and ‘Wan Hai 503’ should not coated below compensation regimes equal to these for oil tankers, regardless of carrying hazardous cargo and posing main dangers. Excessive-profile incidents such because the ‘Ever Given’ (Suez Canal) and ‘DALI’ (Baltimore bridge collapse within the U.S.) underscore the necessity for a devoted worldwide legal responsibility regime for container delivery,” the official mentioned.
An explosion in one of many cargo containers on Monday triggered a fireplace that continues to rage, engulfing the Singapore-flagged container ship ‘Wan Hai 503’, about 44 nautical miles off the coast of Azhikkal in Kerala.
Whereas the Indian Coast Guard ships are on the website making valiant efforts to douse the fireplace, the stricken ship owned by Taiwan’s Wan Hai Strains, has began to listing (tilt) to at least one facet, with many fearing that the ship could sink, elevating the spectre of an environmental hazard because of the presence of harmful cargo in a few of the containers.
Already an unspecified variety of containers have fallen overboard following the explosion and hearth.“This isn’t only a delivery catastrophe,” says ex-mariner Sandeep Maurya. “It’s a loud alarm for the complete delivery trade,” he famous.The mishap calls for rethinking cargo dealing with for excessive climates, investing in fail-safe refrigeration and monitoring for hazardous items and strengthening international security protocols for harmful supplies at sea.
“The lives of seafarers and the integrity of the worldwide provide chain rely on it,” Maurya added.
On Could 25, the Liberian-flagged container ship ‘MSC ELSA 3’, was en path to Kochi from Vizhinjam, carrying over 640 containers, together with at the very least 12 containing hazardous cargo akin to calcium carbide, when it capsized and sank off the coast of Kochi.
