• Ports Authority Chair says unaware of 21 Apr.-due-ship’s content and how much to SL
• Notes that majority of the cargo is to other destinations via SL 

Merely because the cargo ship that collided with a bridge in Baltimore, United States (US), causing the destruction of both the ship and the bridge, was en route to Sri Lanka, it does not mean that the hazardous material that was said to aboard the ship was intended for Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) claimed yesterday (1 April).

Noting that most of the containers that were aboard the ship were to go to other destinations (countries) via Sri Lanka, the SLPA Chairperson Keith D. Bernard told The Daily Morning that the SLPA was not even aware of the contents of the containers at the time of the collision.

“Of the containers that the ship was carrying, we do not know how many were intended for Sri Lanka,” he said.

Adding that generally, the SLPA is informed of the contents of an arriving ship only 72 hours in advance, Bernard explained that the said ship was to arrive in Sri Lanka’s ports on 21 April, and that therefore, the SLPA is not aware of the contents of the containers that the ship was carrying.

The SLPA made these statements in a context where the media outlet ABC7 News had quoted the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as saying that the ship in question was carrying hazardous materials. As per the media outlet, around 56 containers aboard the ship had contained hazardous materials including corrosives, flammables and lithium-ion batteries. The NTSB had said that the investigation in this regard could take 12 to 24 months, although the NTSB will not hesitate to issue urgent safety recommendations during that time. The preliminary report would be released in two to four weeks, as per the authority.

On 26 March, the Singapore flagged ship Dali collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the Bridge to collapse and around six persons who were on the Bridge at the time of the accident to lose their lives. 

Attempts to contact the Central Environmental Authority and the Sri Lanka Customs to get more information in this regard were not successful.