New Delhi: Four days after a ship laden with naphtha ran aground near a beach in Goa, the state government has said that the operation to offload the cargo has been delayed by several days due to rough seas.
However, the actual operation to salvage the ship will take place in a month as some of the instruments required have not arrived.
According to local media reports, the tanker, known as MV NU SHI Nalini, was anchored near Mormugao port with 3,000 tonne of naphtha – a flammable oil containing various hydrocarbons – when it started to drift toward the Raj Bhawan at Dona Paula last Thursday due to strong winds and heavy rains.
According to the Times of India, chief minister Pramod Sawant announced that the operation to transfer the inflammable chemical will take another three-four days due to rough weather conditions.
Meanwhile, Goa’s Navhind Times reported that offloading the naphtha is necessary to lighten the vessel, prior to towing the ship away.
The Emergency Towing Vessel (ETV), belonging to the Directorate General of Shipping, arrived in Goa on Sunday.
But, the actual salvage operation “is likely to be conducted in a month’s time due to a delay in the transport of the required machinery”.
“Sources said that the machinery could not be brought to the state due to the Cyclone Kyarr, which has recently crossed the west coast of India before moving towards Oman,” reported the Panaji-based Navhind Times.
So far, the state government has claimed that Port Assessment and aerial inspections by the Coast Guard showed that there has been no spillage from the beached vessel. The Coast Guard has stationed one oil spill response vessel near the grounded vessel. In case of a spill, two teams with a tug are on standby with 600 metres of boom reel.
An FIR has also been lodged against the owners of the vessel by Vasco harbour coastal police for negligence and endangering public safety under provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
On Sunday, an expert team was lowered into the ship from a helicopter to assess the damage and to plan remedial actions. The team included the Indian government’s nautical advisor Captain K.P. Jayakumar, DGI Nautical Surveyor Captain Mohit Behl and other officials of the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT). According to Times of India, the team stayed nearly three hours onboard the ship
Another technical team of private company Sastech Associates boarded the vessel on Sunday using a boat to assess the logistics required to transport the machinery required for a salvage operation.
However, other attempts to go near the vehicle were not successful. An attempt to fly an unmanned drone to survey the outer hull of the vessel was abandoned due to bad weather conditions. Similarly, divers from Sastech Associates also had to give up on attempts to assess the outer contours of the ship due to high seas.
“A hydrographic surveyor of the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) tried to approach the vessel for a bathymetric survey. Unfortunately, this too was not successful due to bad weather,” said the CM’s office on Saturday evening.