No cover for maritime assets

Stuck ship damages steel beams of Howrah Bridge, holds up traffic.

Did you know that not one of India's maritime assets is insured? This shocking fact came to light today when a ship got stuck under Kolkata's famous Howrah bridge, damaging the steel beams holding it up and forcing its closure for three hours.

"Maritime assets in India are not insured, anywhere in the country," said A K Chanda, chairman of the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), which owns the bridge, while briefing reporters on the details of the incident.

He revealed that for historical reasons, national assets like ports, docks, jetties and bridges were not insured though they were built with taxpayers' money, and despite the fact that insurance was till recently a monopoly of nationalised insurance companies, also owned by taxpayers.

Instead, the government was relying so long on third-party insurance taken out by shipowners and other users of maritime assets to pay for any damage that they caused to public property. "The port, for example, would seize any ship causing damage and try to recover the cost of repairing the damage caused by it," said Chanda.

There was no provision for cover in case the damage caused exceeded the value of the asset seized.

"The government policy so long has been to create dedicated funds for major assets to pay for their repair and maintenance, and in this case, the Howrah Bridge Fund will be tapped to repair the damage which may run into crores," Chanda added.

The situation was saved today because the vessel was not carrying hazardous cargo like fuel, or chemicals, which could have damaged the structure as well as the environment severely.

"In view of some capital intensive investments being planned in the port sector and the cost of the equipment, insurance will have to be considered sooner than later," Chanda confessed.

KoPT was India's second largest port in 2004-05, handling over 42 million tonnes of cargo annually, through dock complexes at Kolkata, Haldia, Budgebudge and Sagar.

To come back to the event at Howrah Bridge: an empty, mid-sized inland water cargo ship, MV Moni, plying up from Budgebudge to Ghusuri on the west bank of the river, today got stuck in the steel beams and cylinders that hold up the Howrah bridge.

As the tide started rising on the river, the vessel started exerting upward pressure on the bridge structure and deck, precipitating a crisis.

The Kolkata Port Trust, as owners of the bridge, called in metal cutters and shaved off the wheelhouse at the topmost level of the ship to save the bridge.