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The fourteenth National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOS-DCP) and Preparedness Meeting was held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 17th Nov 09. Vice Admiral Anil Chopra, AVSM, Director General Indian Coast Guard, the Chairman NOSDCP steered the meeting. A total of 62 delegates from various Govt. Departments, Ports and Oil Companies attended the meeting.
The Chairman in his inaugural address welcomed all the delegates to the 14th NOSDCP meeting and reiterated that the purpose and objective of the meeting is to review preparedness and response capabilities, with a view to prepare all agencies to respond to any contingency which may arise out at sea. He stated that the meeting also provided all agencies, an opportunity to monitor their progress made, whilst shouldering their responsibilities as per the provisions of NOSDCP and the functional roles provided in the Allocation of Business Rules 1961 related to oil pollution mitigation .
The Chairman informed that the sinking of MV Asian Forest off Mangalore on 19 Jul 2009, and the oil spill threat on account of sinking of MV Black Rose off Paradip on 09 Sep 2009 are cause for concern as those incidents were not accidents due to weather conditions but of want of proper checks and verification. The Chairman appreciated the efforts taken by the concerned agencies in mitigating the oil pollution threats and for the quick clean-up action undertaken. The chairman also intimated that there is a urgent requirement of setting up a modern laboratory for undertaking oil finger printing so that any oil spill for which the source is not known can be identified as large number if offshore installations are present in the maritime areas. He mentioned the above requirement in the wake of the mystery oil spill that affected large tracts of south Gujarat coast and north Maharashtra coast in August this year.
The Chairman appreciated the efforts made by the major ports in preparing the contingency plan and establishing the tier-I response facilities. He thanked the resource agencies which participated in the second National Pollution Response Exercise (NATPOLREX-II) conducted off Mumbai on 04 and 05 Nov 09. The Chairman intimated that the Government of India is likely to sign the MoU for the South Asia Cooperative for Environment Protection (SACEP) and several other IMO conventions relating to marine environment protection and reiterated that all agencies to gear up to meet all the emergent requirements of MoU and other IMO conventions.
Finally, the Chairman called upon all ports and oil handling agencies to take all the necessary measures and keep the action plan for oil spill prevention and mitigation as dynamic by constant reviewing of the preparedness levels and taking necessary corrective action to meet all the emergent situation of oil pollution.
The Chairman gave away the first Coast Guard Environment Award for the Ports Category to the Paradip Port Trust in accordance to the recommendations of the Awards Committee who selected Paradip Port Trust for meeting all the criteria of establishing the updated contingency plan, undertaking regular drills, training and exercises, maintenance of adequate PR equipment and also in taking proactive measures to remove large quantities of trapped oil from the sunken ship MV Black Rose. The Deputy Conservator of Paradip Port Trust received the award.
The Secretary, NOS-DCP & Director (Fisheries and Environment), CGHQ briefed the participants about the developments at the National level since last NOS-DCP meeting and also about the efforts undertaken by Coast Guard and various other agencies. The Director (F&E) gave a presentation on overview of NOSDCP.
There were two presentations arranged for the benefit of the members during the meeting. The first presentation was on “International conventions on Oil Pollution” by Capt Deepak Kapoor, Nautical Surveyor, DG Shipping, Mumbai. The second presentation was on “Case Study on MT Hebei Spirit” by Commandant Donny Michael, Joint Director (Environment), CGHQ. A presentation covering debrief on second National Level Pollution Response Exercise (NATPOLREX-II) by Commandant SD Sonak, PRT(West)
The important issues which were discussed and deliberated upon during the meeting included the status report on joint inspection of Tier-I OSR facilities, establishing Tier-I facilities in major ports, establishment of oil spill response organisation, contingency plan for HNS, contingency plan by the coastal states for oil pollution, establishment of website for placing all critical information relating to sensitive areas, tie-up for salvage and ETVs, MoU with littoral states near A&N islands and oil spill legislations. All delegates actively participated in the meeting and points meriting attention were discussed and practical solutions were taken where necessary.
The Chairman while summing up thanked all stakeholders for attending the meeting and lauded the efforts put in by the representative of DG Shipping for the informative presentation and cooperation extended by all members. He requested all members to take all the necessary actions decided during the meeting in a timely manner.
PROCEEDINGS OF 14TH NOS-DCP AND PREPAREDNESS MEETING 2009 .... |
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© 2009 Indian Coast Guard, Ministry Of Defence, Government Of India |