Mumbai Port: Dock Or Graveyard?

The Mumbai harbour, once considered the best and safest docking point for ships this side of the Suez, has of late become the graveyard for several ocean-going vessels.

In the last one year eight vessels, ranging from huge merchant ships to barges and tugs, have simply disappeared around the Mumbai harbour, causing nightmares to shipping companies.

In June and August this year alone, three ships sank outside the port, a few nautical miles from the Gateway of India. Though the sea turns rough and boats are warned not to venture out during the monsoon, ships are generally considered safe.

As many as 24 crew members met their watery grave when the merchant ship, MV Arcadia Pride, sank near here on June 19. The weather was normal, the sea was calm and nobody knows why the ship sank off the harbour without a trace," a port trust official said.

Even as salvage operations were on for the sunken Arcadia Pride, on August 1 another ship - MV Sea Empress - carrying 4,200 tonnes of sulphur from Bahrain sank about 1.7 miles off the Gateway. Helicopters from INS Kunjhali naval base in the city managed to rescue 19 crew members.

In fact, Sea Empress had been safely anchored outside the harbour waiting for a berth, said an official of Unimarine Service, the Indian agent for the Dubai-based shipping company, Bayat International, which owned the ship. She had a seaworthiness certificate and was in fine condition. How she sank is a mystery, he said.

On August 7, yet another ship, the 1,300-tonne general cargo vessel MV Vishva Nandini, belonging to the state-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), sank in the shallow waters right in front of the harbour.

The ship gently rested its bottom on the nine-metre-deep seabed and plunged, leaving its mast above the water. Helicopters from INS Virat, the aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy, which was anchored outside the naval dockyard, rescued the 40-member crew, said an SCI officer.

The ship's crew had earlier reported that a two-metre high and half-metre wide gash had developed in the engine room. Port officials feel the ill-fated INS Vishva Nandini might have hit a sunken vessel and developed the gash through which water filled the vessel. The ship had been loaded with 9,600 tonnes of general cargo, including 50 containers.

Last year, supply vessel Sindhu-VII belonging to the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), had sunk in the harbour while being towed after an accident off the Bombay High, an offshore oil exploration platform. Vishva Nandini might have hit this ONGC ship wreckage, feel port officials.

The uncleared wrecks littering the inner anchorage of the port have become yet another threat to ships approaching it, informed sources said. Submerged and uncleared wrecks of the ship, Moonlight Glory, barge Satyam and dredger Vishal are all posing risks for ships approaching the Mumbai harbour, said an official of the marine police.

The submarine telecom cable linking Mumbai and Dubai was badly damaged recently when a sinking ship's anchor got tangled in the cable, laid on the seabed. This caused an enormous loss for us, said an official of the Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL).

Enterprising hoteliers are planning to convert a ship, abandoned off the Bandra coast, into a floatel, a floating hotel. Local residents have opposed the move fearing pollution and more mishaps.

While shipping companies blame the Mumbai port trust for these accidents, as it charges hefty anchorage fees for the safe upkeep of the approach channel, port authorities point an accusing finger at the shipping liners for poor maintenance of vessels.

Now, we do not provide berths for ships which do not have insurance cover, a port official said.