Security concerns still high as Indian Navy intercepts Iranian vessel drifting within Indian economic zone without intimation

Moneylife Digital Team

The day after MT Pavit, the oil tanker which ran aground at Juhu in suburban Mumbai a fortnight back and was re-floated on Monday, a shipping veteran has demanded that the captain of the vessel be summoned, to find out why he abandoned the ship that had no fault in it.

"This is a clear case of incompetence," said Captain Ashok Malkani. "The MT Pavit, staunch , stout  and upright, was carried by the ocean currents for over a month, unmanned and adrift .It drifted unobserved , untracked and unreported till it gently washed up like some jetsam on Juhu beach." he said.

According to information available, the 999-tonne vessel was abandoned off the Oman coast on 29th July, apparently due to engine failure. The salvage operation that took about four days was completed yesterday and the ship is being towed to Dighi port in Maharashtra.

While describing the salvage operation as a perfect one, Captain Malkani said that the Directorate General of Shipping should inquire into the case and that the captain of MT Pavit should be called to testify about the circumstances in which the ship was abandoned. "This will also help clear doubts about whether there was any attempt to make a false claim on the insurance company," he said.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Shipping has said that it would undertake an investigation into the matter under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958. The directorate stated that, "The owners (of the MT Pavit) have been directed to summon the crew for making depositions before the investigating authorities."

Several security as well as environment concerns have been raised since the vessel ran aground on 31st July. Within a couple of days, yet another vessel, MV Rak Carrier, sank off Mumbai where it had been anchored for some days, apparently without the knowledge of the coastal and shipping authorities.

Rak was carrying 60,000 tonne of coal from Indonesia to Dahej in Gujarat, besides over 300 tonnes of fuel oil and more than 50 tonnes of diesel at the time. The Coast Guard and ONGC have been fighting the oil spill from the vessel which appears to have decreased.

Then on Sunday, the Indian Navy intercepted an Iranian cargo vessel  off Mumbai, which had been found to be drifting in the Arabian Sea, within India's exclusive economic zone, without any official intimation. MV Nafis was spotted during a reconnaissance air patrol. On a search of the ship, the navy police founder two AK-47s and a pistol. Five crew members have been detained.

Veeresh Malik, seafarer and Moneylife columnist, has consistently raised these questions and forcefully too, in the current instances. "The case of the Pavit is a complete mystery of how a ship that was allegedly sinking, landed up off Mumbai with oil drums lashed and intact on deck, is going to need more forensic capabilities than shown so far." (Read: "Why are overage ships with improper documents being chartered for Indian ports?")

EAS Sarma, former finance and power secretary, who is settled in Visakhapatnam, the Eastern Naval Command base, told Moneylife, "There have been many instances of ships having been abandoned off the Mumbai shore. There might be a possibility that these ships are dumping scrap in our waters, thinking that regulators won't take any action. So a thorough investigation from the security and environmental damage should be initiated."

Moneylife has raised these concerns in previous reports, but there has been little or no effective action to ensure that such instances do not recur. (Read, "Danger ahoy! Questions arise on Indian naval safety after repeated shipping fiascos".)