The oil spill off the Mumbai coast caused by the collision of two freighters is under control but salvage operations off the Mumbai coast are expected to last a month, Maharashtra environment minister Suresh Shetty told journalists on Monday.

A team of experts from Singapore arrived in Mumbai on Monday to assist in the operations, which are being primarily conducted by the Singapore-based company Smit Salvage. Owing to monsoon weather, the work is expected to effectively start by the end of this month.

''Only two tanks of the vessel [MSC Chitra] have been reported to be damaged,'' the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said. Shetty said the challenge before the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) was clearing the waters of containers which had sunk or were afloat. ''The containers would be shifted to a reserved area at the JNPT,'' he said.

Maharashtra minister for ports and Transport Radhakrishna Vikhe Patel had said earlier it would take five more days for normalisation of channel operations.

Making a statement in Parliament, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said normal traffic would be restored at the harbour by 15 August, but it would take at least 45 days to clean up the mess.

While the ICG announced that containers of hazardous material were unaffected, there is no confirmation if any of the chemicals had leaked out into the sea.

Shetty said 31 containers carried sodium hydroxide and organophosphorus pesticides, among other hazardous material. He said if the spread of oil reached the coast or the mangroves, the administration would have to take measures to physically clean it in a time-bound manner.

''The oil spill is a potential threat to marine environment in view of its chemical characteristics. However, as of now, the situation is under control,'' a defence press note said. Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan on Monday issued directions to the tehsildars of coastal areas to collect water samples to detect the extent of the oil slick.

Shetty said the Panama-registered shipping companies would be liable for the losses and the environmental damage. However, an assessment is yet to be made. An alert on oil pollution has been issued to Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Raigad.

Shetty said the JNPT and the MbPT which have a vessel management system to guide ships, were in touch with MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia III before the collision on Saturday morning, 10 nautical miles off Mumbai.

However, miscommunication between the captain and the control room, different frequency levels of the ship, radio communication and bridge watch are prima facie believed to be the reasons behind the accident.

Captains Ranjit Martin and Laxman Dubey of MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia III have been booked for negligent navigation leading to environmental degradation. However, no one has been arrested.

The Mumbai port has been closed during the night for shipping activity. Satish Agnihotri, director general of shipping raised concerns that the spread of oil could be affected by the wind and tide conditions. ''Agencies are studying the spread of oil.

We have asked them to report to us,'' said. M M Saggi, nautical advisor to the government of India. He said the culpability aspect was a matter of investigation. ''The company people are here. We have to seek their assistance. They are not going to run away.''

Meanwhile, a police constable deployed on patrolling duty died on Sunday night. His body was fished out from a patrolling boat on Monday morning. The shipping companies have put up the rescued crew members of the ships in Mumbai. MSC Chitra had 37 members on board, two of whom are Pakistanis.

The Coast Guard has alerted all the industries along the coast to monitor the quality of sea water used for industrial purposes. R K Sharma, head media relations and public awareness, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) said BARC is only one of the agencies which has received this advice and it is not specifically targeted at BARC.

Six Coast Guard vessels and a helicopter continued to spray dispenser chemicals for the fourth day today to neutralise the patches of oil that have spread over quite a large area along the coastline.

Foreign experts from SMIT, a Netherlands-based company, hired for salvage efforts, went into a huddle with Coast Guard officials to prepare a blueprint for preventing any further oil spill into the sea.

According to Coast Guard sources, discussions were held with Eric J B Kraan, general manager (salvage) Asia, of SMIT. It has been decided to suck out the remaining oil in the ship, which though dangerously tilted, has steadied.

Of the 1219 containers on the ship, around 150 were believed to have slipped into the sea due to the tilt. Sources said customs authorities were being liaised with for speedy clearance of the retrieved containers.

Effective salvage operations, they said, would commence from Friday.
Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who had undertaken an aerial survey of the affected areas, said, ''The situation is under control now''.

He said it has been estimated that 400-500 metric tonnes of oil may have spilled from the vessel which was carrying 2,662 metric tonnes of oil.

Meanwhile, terming the oil spill as a ''big disaster'', the centre has said it will make every effort to clean the polluted water as soon as possible.

''We have technology. We will try to clean the water as soon as possible,'' Minister of state for science and technology Prithviraj Chavan told reporters in Delhi.