Mumbai’s narrow channel posing threat to vessels

MUMBAI — The nearly 3,000-tonne warship was meant to attack enemy ships and submarines, but the INS Vindhyagiri, the Niligiri-class frigate, sank ignominiously at the naval dockyard here, the worst-ever peacetime loss for the Indian Navy.

Nithin Belle

Published: Thu 3 Feb 2011, 12:12 AM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 9:10 PM

The frigate went down after being rammed on Sunday afternoon by a container vessel, the MV Nordlake, which was sailing out of the Nhava-Sheva port, about 20 km east of Mumbai’s ports.

Mumbai’s narrow, 30-km-long shipping channel, which serves two of the country’s busiest ports, besides the naval base, is increasingly posing a threat to vessels. Shipping industry sources blame the communication system and lack of proper monitoring of the vessels, besides multiplicity of authorities.

Though both the state-owned ports, Mumbai and Nhava-Sheva, are located close to each other – separated only by the channel – they are managed by two separate trusts. Similarly, the Western Naval Command of the Indian Navy has its own set-up including a dockyard and a port. But vessels sailing into or out of all three ports pass through the same channel. And the movement of ships calling on the two civilian ports is managed by a vessel traffic management system (VTMS) featuring high-frequency electronic communication facilities.

Similar to the air traffic control systems at airports, the VTMS includes radars and high-frequency radio communication to track ships

entering and leaving the two ports. But both ports have different VHF channels and ships have to switch over to the one that is within range. There are now calls for a single communication frequency. Large ships also need to be guided into and out of the ports by pilot vessels, but in many of the recent collisions, there was no pilotage.

Last August, two ships — the MSC Chitra, a container vessel, and MV Khalijia III, a break-bulk carrier — were involved in a collision in the common channel, resulting in a massive oil-spill and the blocking of the two ports.

There have been several other accidents of late in the narrow channel, including a few involving defence vessels.

On Sunday, just before the Nordlake hit the frigate, it avoided colliding with another container vessel, the MV Sea Eagle. Surprisingly, the collision occurred on a bright afternoon when visibility was excellent.

nithin@khaleejtimes.com