Cpt To Move Court To Seek Security From Owner Of Sunken Korean

Calcutta Port Trust (CPT) will move a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, seeking security deposit from the owner of sunken Korean vessel M V Green Opal, which has blocked a portion of the Hooghly river channel near Birlapur, 20 miles down the Calcutta Dock System, where the accident occurred.

Earlier, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court did not pass any order on the issue of security deposits from the owner of the vessel, Dooyang Lines Ltd of Korea.

The owner and master of the vessel left for home in Korea after the division bench passed an order allowing them to leave the city. They were earlier prevented from leaving the city by the trial court until the disposal of the case, resulting in their forced stay here for about three weeks.

CPT has taken a serious view of the situation following the shipwreck for which the 126-mile navigable river channel has shrunk to a considerable degree at the site where the Korean ship is still stuck.

The CPT trustees have asked chairman H P Roy to take proper steps to remove the sunken vessel on an emergency footing.

CPT is believed to have been assured by UK Mutual Steamship Assurance Association, which is the insurer of M V Green Opal, that it will take steps to remove the shipwreck. P&I Club of the UK will assist the insurance company in the task. They are prepared to give an undertaking to CPT in this respect.

But CPT trustees have instructed the chairman that these organisations must be told to clear up the river channel by removing the wreck within a specific time-frame. This has assumed importance since the shipwreck occurred on June 19. In accepting the undertaking from these two UK organisations, which look after the interests the Korean shipping company and its managing director K Y Chu, proper legal safeguards will have to be taken and financial interests of CPT will have to be protected.

The cost of removing the Korean vessel is estimated at Rs 10-12 crore.