Mumbai ship collision: Port Pilots violated rules

Mumbai, Aug 12: Investigations into Saturday, Aug 7 collision of two cargo ships was clearly due to violation of prescribed communication between ships as well as with port traffic controllers.

Sources at the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) told The Indian Express that The Mumbai Port and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port have been closed for operations since the incident as over 200 floating containers pose a navigational hazard for ships entering and leaving the channel.

The Director-General of Shipping subsequently said the two ships were operating on different frequencies, Chitra on VHF 13 as it departed from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), and Khalijia on VHF 12 as it was approaching MbPT.

The main cause of tragedy was due to communication gap between the port pilots said the Vehicle Traffic Management System (VTMS).

“The JNPT pilot should not have disembarked at all," said Capt. Arun Karkare, a former pilot with MbPT.

OneIndia News