Team Herald
VASCO: The work of removing hazardous materials from cruise vessel M V Qing and sealing off cracks in grounded the vessel would be completed before August 31.
This was informed by South Goa Collector and Chairperson of South Goa Disaster Management Authority (SGDMA) Swapnil Naik, on Wednesday.
Naik had called for a review meeting with all the stake holders including MPT, GSPCB, WISL officials, the salvaging company, Coast Guard and the police officials to take stock of situation of the vessel that got grounded at Western India shipyard Limited premises.
At the meeting, Naik said that he was informed by the agencies involved that all precautions have been taken to prevent any oil spilling and the work to remove the accumulated rain water from the vessel was in progress.
“As per the salvaging team and other agencies involved, they would kick start full swing operations from Friday and the work to remove all the hazardous materials including the 350-odd tonnes of bunker oil stored in the vessel, besides sealing the cracks and floating the vessel would be completed before August 31. We have taken this as deadline and we would be conducting similar review meeting in future till the vessel is declared safe,” Naik informed Herald.
