Over two-and-a-half months after the capsize of the Liberian-flagged container ship MSC Elsa off the coast of Kerala, foreign technicians and divers have arrived at the Kollam port to assist in containing and extracting oil and other hazardous materials from the ship. The immigration officials posted at Kollam issued the passes for the technicians who were transported to the site from the Kollam port using offshore support vessels.
Oil slicks from the ship were spotted again on Monday (August 4, 2025), although it was not clear whether the underwater divers had started working on the leakage from the ship. According to State government officials, the Coast Guard team that had been patrolling in the area had spotted the oil slicks. With improved weather conditions over the Arabian Sea, the foreign technicians and divers have been pressed into extracting the oil from the sunken ship.
Kerala shipwrecks: State to frame Oil Spill Contingency Plan
There were around 640 containers onboard when the ship capsized on its way from Vizhinjam to Kochi on May 24. Among the containers, 13 were classified as hazardous, and 12 contained calcium carbide. The ship also had 84.44 tonnes of diesel and 367.1 tonnes of furnace oil, raising serious environmental concerns.
