MSC to Sue Khalijia in Mumbai collision

Mediterranean Shipping Co. will sue Gulf Rocks, the Kuwaiti owner of MV Khalijia-3, for damages resulting from that vessel's collision with the MSC Chitra on Aug. 7, according to Livemint.com.

The collision at the main entrance of the shipping channel used by Jawaharlal Nehru and Mumbai ports dumped more than 200 containers off the MSC Chitra's deck and caused an oil spill of at least 400 metric tons that will take an estimated $10 million to clean up.

An inquiry by India's Director General of Shipping found the MV Khalijia-3 was mainly responsible for the collision, supporting the strong statement by MSC's headquarters in Geneva that the Khalijia-3 was at fault in the collision.

The inquiry found that the Khalijia-3 entered the navigation channel at the wrong time and at the wrong angle. It was meant to enter the channel at a parallel angle. Instead it was perpendicular to the channel. As a result the Khalijia-3 occupied almost the entire length of the channel.

MSC has made an advance payment of $218,000 to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, which had demanded $654,000 from MSC for cleaning-up operations across the Maharashtra coastline.

"MSC Chitra was an innocent victim in this crash. We will sue the owners of Khalijia once the investigation is over," said D.K. Tewari, chief executive officer of the Indian unit of MSC.

"We will go 10 levels ahead to fight the case for all the damages and losses created by this collision," he said.

Tewari said the simplified voyage data recorder, similar to a black box in a plane, indicates that MSC Chitra was not at fault and was on the right hand side of the channel in accordance with navigation rules.

"In the meantime, we are retrieving all containers that fell on the sea, though there are 189 boxes (that are) still unaccounted for," Tewari said.
(Source:www.joc.com)