MSC off the hook, Khalijia 3 blamed for Mumbai ship collision

POOR judgment aboard the 25,525-gross ton bulk carrier Khalijia 3 was the main cause of last month`s collision with the 2,314-TEU MSC Chitra (33,113 gross tons) in the Mumbai ship channel that closed India`s biggest port for a week, according to India`s Directorate of General Shipping.

The directorate, according to local reports, said the Khalijia 3 navigated the port`s entry channel at the wrong time, resulting in it blocking the whole the channel. The findings also indicate the Khalijia 3 owners face clean-up bill from the oil spill after the collision.


The directorate investigation also criticised Mumbai Port Trust`s Vehicle Traffic Monitoring System (VTMS) because its radar wasn`t working and officials were not monitoring ship movements in its absence.


Furthermore, many of the 250-400 containers on board the Mediterranean Shipping Company`s MSC Chitra fell into the sea were lost, and their owners could look to the owner of Khalijia 3 for the recovery of their shipments or compensation, reported London`s International Freighting Weekly.


Swiss-owned MSC has always maintained that the Gulf Rocks KSC-owned Khalijia 3, of Kuwait, was at fault, saying it "unexpectedly continued turning to port [left], and came back to cross the fairway again and struck the MSC Chitra on the port side, while the MSC Chitra was still properly navigating in the main channel."


But Mumbai`s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) said it would sue Geneva`s MSC, the world`s second largest container shipping company after Maersk, for an accident even when it was evident that MSC ship was the least culpable of the two.