Shipping team visits site of sunken vessel

A Central team sent by the Directorate General of Shipping-Mumbai today visited the site of the sunken vessel- Black Rose off the coast of Paradip and interacted with the Jagatsinghpur district administration and officials of the Paradip Port Trust (PPT).

The expert team has been sent to offer technical support to the district administration and PPT authorities for carrying out salvage operations of the sunken vessel.

M V Ramamurthy, president (shipping) of Reliance Industries Ltd, S K Das, deputy nautical advisor along with the Jagatsinghpur collector Narayan Chandra Jena, Gauri Prasad Biswal, deputy conservator, PPT, officials of the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) and the environment department visited the site.

 

The expert team interacted with the district administration and officials of PPT and SPCB on issues like expediting salvage operations of the sunken vessel, safety measures for other ships, environmental pollution due to non recovery of cargo from the sunken vessel and its impact on the breeding of Olive Ridley turtles in the Bay of Bengal and change of sand movement and its effect on the sea shore near the Mahanadi river mouth.

Earlier, PPT officials explained in detail about the cause of sinking of Mongolia-bound cargo ship- 'MV Black Rose’ in the Bay of Bengal on 9 September, 2009.

They also informed that the owner of the sunken ship is yet to turn up at Paradip even after two years of sinking of the ill fated vessel. PPT had lodged an FIR against the vessel owner at the Marine Police station.

They also informed that the ship was carrying 23,847 tonnes of iron ore cargo (fines) and 920 tonnes of furnace oil which sank in the sea. PPT had spent Rs 17.50 crore to pump out 924 tonnes of furnace oil.

Meanwhile, the district administration, which was assigned the responsibility of dismantling wreckage of Black Rose, had sought the cooperation and technical support of the Union ministry of shipping, environment department, PPT and SPCB.