Fire sweeps engine room of container ship in Indian ocean

No danger to SL due to the distance – MEPA

By Ifham Nizam

A fire had broken out in the engine room of a container ship MSC MESSINA in the Indian ocean halfway between Sri Lanka and Malacca Strait around 1930 UTC on Thursday, foreign media reports said.

The ship was disabled and remained disabled, adrift by Friday, they indicated.

The Liberian flagged vessel was en route from Colombo to Singapore.

The ship was 500 nautical miles away from the Great Basses Reef Lighthouse and there’s no danger to Sri Lanka due to the distance, the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) said.

Meanwhile, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stressed the importance of ramping up maritime facilities to handle any emergency situation in the future.

President Rajapaksa told the Cabinet that stakeholders should be able to act swiftly with modern technology and resources to handle any disasters in Lankan waters, Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.

“We have also underlined the importance of tackling major disasters and the constraints faced when it comes to availability of modern technology”, a senior MEPA official said

As a maritime hub with more than 4,000 ships docking annually, measures should be taken to handle at least the basics without turning to neighboring countries for assistance, he said.

On the instructions of the President, MEPA, armed forces and other relevant government agencies launched a comprehensive operation to mitigate the damage to the marine environment and coastline by the ill-fated MV X-Press Pearl.

Earlier, the President directed officials to pay special attention to the threat of an oil spill from the stricken feeder vessel. He asked them to study the steps taken by other countries when managing similar disasters.