Lankan consortium demands compensation from Indian vessel

Hiran H. Senewiratne

Number of leading food importers are soliciting justice from the ship company owning Rajiv Gandhi vessel which belong to the Shipping Corporation of India due to the perishing of cargo as a result of a seven-day delay on arrival.

The vessel was loaded with more 72 tons of onions and potatoes worth of Rs. 60 million. The ship was arrested by the Sri Lankan Ports Authority following a Court order, last week. However, the vessel has been released by the Sri Lanka Customs after producing a bank guarantee early this week.

The reason for the ship to be arrested by the authorities of the Port was that the entire consignment was perished due to this long delay, which created a problem of obtaining compensation from the said shipping company. Normally the sailing time from Mumbai to Colombo was 52 hours.

The problem arose owing to an engine trouble of the vessel which forced them to stop over at Mangular fishing port. This resulted in a seven-day delay and the cargo was perished. An importer P. Subramanium of Bramma Agency said that due to the delay, there was an irreparable loss to his consignment of goods.

Subramanium said that they persistently object to that claim and demanded 100 per cent bank guarantee to release the vessel. It is said that 80 containers were on board. "Later group of 40 formed a consortium to obtain compensation, while balance 40 importers are not involved in this matter because they don't know the procedure of obtaining compensation," he said. I. M. Anis Meezan, Foods Ltd said that on arrival of the vessel, a conducted a joint cargo survey was done by SGS Lanka on behalf of importers.

Intermark Services did the survey on behalf Shipping Company which certified that 80 per cent of cargo have been perished.

From the Court claim, consortium expects to get Rs. 28 million worth of compensation from the Indian Shipping Line. The legal firm of the case is Paul Ratnayake Associates.