Ship insurers in Chennai, talks on for compensation

According to an official release, the DG Shipping has instituted a statutory inquiry under the Merchant Shipping Act to ascertain the causes and contributory factors that led to the accident. Both the ships have been restrained from leaving the Port. DG Shipping was also holding discussions with the owners of the ships and the mechanism of distribution of compensation and payment of claims by the insurers would be shortly in place. 

The Protection and Indemnity (P and I) insurers of MT Dawn Kanchipuram were in the process of establishing a local ‘Claims Desk’ and specifying the procedures for submitting and handling claims. The representative from the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited (a specialised international agency on ‘Oil Spill Response’) arranged by the owner/P and I insurers of MT Dawn is already in Chennai. 

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard ships and helicopters are carrying out regular sorties for continuous monitoring of oil slick which spread to around 45 kms. Intensive clean-up operations are being conducted, and the authorities involved in the operations were confident that the situation was under control and the entire cleaning up operation would be completed in a couple of days.