Chennai, May 22 (IANS): The National Green Tribunal's (NGT) southern bench on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL) in a case related to the oil leak into the sea off Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam in March 2023.

Judicial member, Justice Pushpa Satyanarayana and expert member Satyagopal Karlapati pronounced the judgment on a suo moto case on the incident.

The leakage at the CPCL's Cauvery Basin Refinery was detected on March 2, 2023, but a large amount of crude oil had already leaked into the sea by May 5, 2023, when CPCL workers plugged the leakage after three days of repairs.

In the wake of the incident, fishermen from villages of Nagapattinam taluk such as Pattinamcherry, Samanathampettai, Nambiyar Nagar, Ariyanatutheru, Keechankuppam, Akkaraipettai and Kallar abstained from venturing into the sea following the leakage. After a peace meeting held on March 16, 2023, CPCL officials had promised to remove the pipelines by May 31, 2023, leading to fishermen resuming venturing back into the sea.