Jawaharlal Nehru Port Partially Reopens After Collision

India's biggest container port resumed partial operations on Thursday, ending the shutdown caused by the collision of two ships in its main channel last Saturday.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port let one ship through Thursday morning and will allow vessels with a draft of up to 30 feet to move during high tide, Chief Manager S.N. Maharana told Bloomberg News.

The adjacent Mumbai Port is also considering opening its channel after a meeting Thursday, said Rahul Asthana, chairman of the Mumbai Port Trust. Mumbai harbor has been closed for traffic after the collision of the container vessel MSC Chitra and the break-bulk vessel Khalizia-3, since the weekend.

Salvagers are continuing to remove some of the 300 containers that spilled from Mediterranean Shipping Co.'s MSC Chitra and made the sea unsafe for passage, said Asthana.

The shutdown of the two ports stranded about $4 billion worth of exports aboard some 32 ships in the two harbors. Another 80 vessels that were waiting at sea on Monday to enter the harbor have largely been diverted to other ports.

The closure of the two ports, which handle about 40 percent of India's trade, hampered deliveries of oil, grains and other commodities in a country that depends on harbors for 90 percent of overseas trade.

"We are not equipped to deal with these kinds of situations," said A. Sakthivel, president of the Federation of Indian Exports Organizations, which gave the $4 billion estimate. "We have asked the government to get help from foreign experts."

An Indian navy vessel will escort ships as they transit the passage to Jawaharlal Nehru port. Ships will be allowed to move at a restricted speed of up to four nautical miles an hour, he said. Mumbai Port will likely be restricted to smaller ships if it opens.