The Indian Coast Guard has joined hands with a private maritime university here in south Indian state Tamil Nadu to offer an international level course that would train officials of oil companies in effectively tackling oil spills.
The coast guard and the AMET University recently entered into an agreement to offer the International Maritime Organisation Level-II Oil Pollution Preparedness Response and Co-operation
(OPRC) programme for senior and middle level managers of the oil firms and the ports.
"The five-day OPRC Level-II course which commenced this month is the first of its kind or initiative in the country", Inspector General
A Rajasekhar, Commander, Coast Guard Region (East), told PTI.
The course offered intensive training sessions conforming to the IMO guidelines and would cover oil spill assessment, combat
techniques, planning waste management, legislation compensations and applicable claims, and shoreline cleanup exercises, he said.
On Coast Guard involvement, he said, "We will take the trainees to the sea and give them practical training".
He said the class room instructions on various topics related to functional and operational responsibilities, planning and combat
techniques applicable to the trainees were being conducted by senior officers of Indian Coast Guard, AMET University professors and guest lecturers.
"As a part of the training, live demonstrations of pollution response equipment was conducted onboard Indian Coast Guard ships 'Sagar' and 'Jijabai' during the training programme", he added.
"A group of 25 persons from various oil industries successfully completed the course, which forms the cornerstone for the conduct
and management of an effective response to a marine oil spill", AMET University Vice-Chancellor Capt. S. Bhardwaj said.
He said in case of any emergency of oil pollution, these trained people would become "on-scene commanders" and would coordinate
with Coast Guard and other relevant agency to tackle the situation.
Bhardwaj said the next course would start by October, 2010.
"The course will now be held regularly at our campus on a bi-annual basis", he said.
The objective of the course was to train members of an oil spill response team organization to effectively respond to an oil spill through the deployment of equipment and resources at the local level, he said
The course focus, therefore, was on the operational management and tactics involved in responding to oil spills, he said, adding these
procedures represent the critical delivery element of any national contingency plan.
"This is an excellent opportunity for personnel to learn about the oil spill response supervision and take decisions at local level for
coordinating tier-I level response", he claimed.
Also, as response officials from various ports and oil handling agencies are participating, the response personnel will be able to gain a better insight into the attitudes and actions of industry and the public from the various course instructors, he said.
He said the entry requirement for the course is that the personnel nominated should be at least a middle level manager, who has sufficient experience in Pollution Response Operations.
The university has all facilities to provide all round training that includes a brief tanker familiarisation, simulator systems and visit to ports and sensitive shoreline areas, he said.