MSC Chitra lessons helped

The oil spill due to the rupture in the ONGC pipeline on Friday is far less alarming than the spill caused by the collision of two merchant vessels — MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia — in August 2010, Coast Guard sources said.

Unlike the incident on Friday, the earlier one took place very close to the coastline, at the mouth of the Mumbai harbour. Thus, the impact was bigger.

MSC Chitra, which took the brunt of the collision, had 800 tonnes of oil in its tank. The oil spill spread quickly along the coastline.

Also, it had 1,200 containers on board, which fell off after the vessel started tilting in one direction. These blocked the navigation channels and movement of ships. Only 55 tonnes of oil leaked after Friday’s incident, an official said.

The lessons learnt from last year’s incident helped fight the fresh challenge better, he said.