Mumbai oil spill Inquiry blames Khalijia

Mumbai : The inquiry by the Director General of shipping into the collision of two cargo ships off the coast of Mumbai which caused a huge oil spillage nearly a month ago, has found one of the ships, MV Khalijia to be at fault for the mishap, reports said on Tuesday.

The collision between the two ships, MV Khalijia and MSC Chitra, resulted in over 800 tonnes of oil leaking from the Chitra along with some of its cargo falling into the sea.

According to NDTV, the inquiry concludes that the Khalijia was primarily at fault since it entered the navigation channel at the wrong time and wrong angle, ending up occupying the entire length of the channel.

Also, the captain of the Khalijia contacted the captain of MSC Chitra barely two minutes before the accident.

The inquiry has also reportedly found that the Mumbai Port Trust?s Vehicle Monitoring System was inefficient with no one monitoring the ship movements and one of the two radars were out of order.

Earlier the Mumbai Port Trust had slapped a fine on the owners of the Chitra, Mediterranean Shipping Company, for the oil spill but the inquiry?s findings could transfer the blame on to the Khalijia.