KARACHI, Aug 19: The Karachi Port Trust, on Tuesday, claimed that no further leakage had been observed from the grounded Tasman Spirit and the lighterage operation was going on smoothly.

According to the statement issued by Karachi Port Trust on Tuesday, the ship is stable and there has been no change in the position of both of her sections. It states that booms and skimmers were used to collect 28,000 litres of oil from the harbour on Monday. Three barges were also used for further offloading and have taken out 700 tonnes.

The KPT said that aerial spray was not conducted, as tugs continued to spray dispersants. Spotter aircraft and helicopter carried out reconnaissance of the areas and no major oil pool was found.

Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Sardar Ali Muhammad Khan Mahar has said that the situation in coastal areas will be normalized and glories of Seaview and Clifton will be restored within about next 12 days.

The chief minister stated this after attending a briefing on the salvage and lighterage operations at the KPT headquarters on Tuesday.

Chairman KPT Vice-Admiral Ahmed Hayat apprised the chief minister about measures being taken to transfer all the remaining oil from the Tasman Spirit and salvage efforts being carried out at the sea and beaches hit by crude oil.

Vice-Admiral Ahmed Hayat described the steps, which were taken from July 28 to Aug 16.

He said the oil is being transferred at Fair Jolly vessel, which was brought later for lighterage operation. A total of 19,100 tonnes oil has been transferred so far.

Mr Mahar said that the relevant authorities, including KPT, DHA, city government and other departments officials, had been directed to ensure implementation on directive to restrain public especially children from visiting the coastal belt.

Later, the chief minister along with City Nazim, chief secretary, home secretary, DCO Karachi went to the site of the grounded ship and reviewed the operation.

On the other side, Sindh Home Secretary Syed Anwar Haider underlined the need to gear up the efforts undertaken so far to combat the situation that arose after oil spillage at the sea.

He emphasized upon the need of security boost up around the sea shore near and along the Shireen Jinnah Colony coast so that people could be conveniently restricted from the affected area of the beach.

He was presiding over the Crisis Management Committee meeting held at his office on Tuesday.

The representative of KPT informed him that nearly 14,000 tonnes oil had been pumped out from the sunken ship for the last three days.

The meeting was informed that within next 10 to 15 days the sunken ship would be defuelled completely.

Dr Karen Purnell, an expert from M/s Oil Spill Response Ltd. from UK, who is in charge of the entire clean up operation on beach, informed the meeting that the first phase of the clean up would be completed within next two weeks. Thereafter, the polishing up would be started to completely clean the beach from every bad effect of oil spillage, she added.

She said that even after the completion of second phase, a team of 50 people would work on the beach for the next one month for its maintenance. However, during the maintenance phase the beach could be opened for public.

She informed that the dispersant used so far was biodegradable and would not harm the mangroves, vegetation and marine life. It had low level of toxicity as compared to oil itself and the dispersant must come to beach alongwith tides within 12 to 24 hours.

Dr Karen informed that the purpose of the dispersant spray was to convert the oil into small floating balls which would ultimately end up at the coast with the tidal action.

The KPT representative said that the front portion of the ship had sunk about 18 metres in the sand and it would not be easy to get it out from the place. He said an identification flag would be posted on the ship to warn the ships entering the channel.—APP/PPI