Mumbai Port Trust asked to destroy hazardous chlorine cargo

An inquiry panel constituted to probe the Chlorine gas leak at the Mumbai Port Trust on July 14 has asked the Mumbai Port Trust's deputy conservator to immediately remove the hazardous cargo from the warehouses and destroy it. Stating that the move would not require any clearance from the Customs or any other authority to do so, the panel said the Port Trust would do better to bear the losses of destroying the hazardous cargo rather than its sale, the panel has made clear that the deputy conservator shall be "personally responsible for any such incident in future".

Headed by the Shipping Ministry's Joint Secretary ( Ports), the panel ordered that the guilty firms be delisted and denied import- export facilities for five years till 2016.

Ordering that an FIR be registered against M/ s Agro Gases and M/ s James Mackintosh under the IPC and relevant provisions of various Acts for criminal negligence, for endangering lives of general public, the panel also made recommendations mandatory for handling hazardous cargo.

The Shipping Ministry sent out recommendations of the committee to chairmen of all the major port trusts in the country for implementation, making it clear that these kind of lapses will not be tolerated and the guilty would be brought to book.

The 13- point recommendations mandate that all hazardous cargo would be handled during daylight hours only between sunrise and sunset and dangerous and hazardous cargo will be delivered direct instead of its storage within the port premises.

"All import cargo should be taken from the ship's hook under custom escort directly to the importer's bonded warehouse. In case of export cargo, all custom formalities need to be carried out by the exporter while such hazardous cargo may be transported when the ship is at the berth and loaded directly on to the vessel just prior to sailing," the committee recommended.