Oil From Stranded Malaysian Cargo Ship To Be Removed Soon: Minister

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government is in talks with the owners of the Malaysian cargo ship ‘Jin Hwa 32’ for removing around 30,000 litres of oil from the stranded vessel at the earliest.

The Puri district administration had expressed concern and asked the cargo ship owner to remove around the oil from the vessel without further delay, Commerce and Transport minister Padmanabha Behera told mediapersons here.

The minister said that initially there were problems in tracing the owner of the vessel. However, the owner in the meanwhile has sought permission from the Puri collector for removing the oil. Once the entire oil from the vessel is removed, steps will be taken for the removal of the vessel.

The ill-fated ship with seven Malaysians, two Filipinos and one Indian on board, was on the way to Visakhapatnam port to pick up new cargo after unloading its shipment in Bangladesh when it got caught in a storm in the Bay of Bengal and drifted towards Odisha on the night and got stuck near Rajhans on Chilika shore on August 7.