Kochi: The Directorate General of Shipping and experts appointed by the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) have begun the preliminary inspection and mapping of the Liberia-flagged container vessel MSC ELSA 3, which sank off the Kerala coast on May 25.

Alongside efforts to recover oil leaking from the vessel, authorities are also prioritising the recovery of containers carrying hazardous chemicals. The preliminary inspection aims to gather detailed information to facilitate these operations.

Once the mapping is complete, oil recovery operations are scheduled to start on June 13, with authorities aiming to finish by July 3. Following this, efforts will focus on raising the containers and, if possible, the ship itself.

This first stage involves a thorough analysis of the sunken ship and containers, including the sea depth at the accident site, characteristics of the area, potential congestion if located in a shipping lane, the condition of the ship post-accident, the contents of the containers, and the environmental features of the region.

The incident took place while the vessel was en route to Kochi Port from Vizhinjam. It was carrying 84.44 metric tonnes of diesel and 367.1 metric tonnes of furnace oil. The ship had 640 containers on board, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide.