Odisha asks Malaysian firm to shift stranded vessel in 7 days

The Odisha government on Thursday directed the owner of a Malaysian cargo ship stranded at Rajhans Beach near Chilika Lake to shift the vessel from the eco-sensitive zone in the next seven days.

The order from Puri district administration came a day after the Malaysian firm started extracting fuel from 'Jin HWA 32' vessel following its engineers' failure to operate it.

Puri Collector Balwant Singh said the administration has asked the firm to remove fuel from the ship within two days and shift the vessel from the eco-sensitive waters of Chilika Lake within seven days.

Indian Coast Guard had cautioned the state government of a possibility of an oil spill from the ship, which contains 30,000 litres of diesel, 1,000 litres of lube oil and 200 litres of hydraulic oil.

Singh said the Malayasian firm has been using a 700 metre-long pipe to extract oil from the ship and is storing it in tankers for transportation ashore to Satpada.

The 7,500 deadweight tonne vessel had unloaded its cargo from Malaysia in Bangladesh and was on its way to load fresh cargo from Vishakhapatnam port when it got caught in a storm in the Bay of Bengal and drifted towards Odisha coast.

It has been anchored near Rajhans Beach since August 7.