Oil spill hit Mumbai port to restart by Sunday

ndia's busiest port, shut after a weekend collision of two cargo ships off Mumbai's coast, will resume operations by Sunday without any significant impact on commodity trade, government and industry officials said.
The collision, which triggered an oil slick, has hit operations at the Mumbai port and the neighbouring Jawaharlal Nehru Port after containers fell into the shipping channel used by the ports.
"I have been told normal traffic is to be resumed by Sunday... There is no oil spill as of now," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told parliament on Tuesday.
Earlier, V.R. Joglekar, chief public relations officer of the Mumbai Port Trust had said operations would remain suspended for at least two days.
"No ships are coming or going from here. Whatever cargo is there on the berth, we are handling that. This situation is likely to continue for another 2-3 days," Joglekar said before the minister's statement in parliament's upper house.
Ramesh said 32 ships had been stranded at the Jawaharlal Nehru port, a major hub for container traffic, and the Mumbai port.
These include ships that will deliver 1.5 million barrels of crude oil for one of the biggest refiners and a stranded naphtha cargo for export.
Several ships carrying vegetable oils, steel, crude oil and naphtha are unable to berth or sail out, but industry officials ruled out any significant market impact unless the port remained shut for many days.
"I am trying to seek details from individual edible oils importers but I do not see any impact even if operations start again by Sunday. There will be no problem at all," said B.V. Mehta, executive director of the Solvent Extractors' Association of India,
India, the world's biggest edible oil importer, buys the cooking fat from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and Argentina.
According to trade and shipping sources, about 31,400 tonnes of edible oils are at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, while 158,000 tonnes were expected to arrive on Tuesday.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust handled more than 60.7 million tonnes of container traffic in 2009/10, a 6 percent rise compared with the previous year.
Authorities hope to clear the harbour of the containers within two to three days, the Ministry of Shipping said on Monday.