TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar on Tuesday disclosed that M/s Arihant Ship Breakers has been asked to present a detailed plan of action for removal of the remaining portion of the River Princess wreck off Candolim-Sinquerim coast in a time-bound manner.
In his written reply Parulekar said some portion of the vessel is still lying on the surface of the seabed as confirmed by NIO after conducting a magnetometer survey. He was replying to queries from Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho and Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco.
Narrating the entire River Princess chronology, the tourism minister pointed out that as per the agreement, M/s New Horizon Surveys conducted underwater surveys through side scan sonar and sub-bottom profilers in June 2012 of the wreck.
Its final report was submitted by the tourism department to the hydrographic office in Dehradun and NIO, Dona Paula.
However, a resurvey conducted by NIO, revealed large portions of the wreck still buried under the seabed, Parulekar disclosed.
In another reply to Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, the tourism minister said that steps were being taken through the IRB police force to crack the whip on beggars, touts, masseurs and all kinds of nuisances along the beach belt. He also disclosed that the government is in the process of preparing a detailed action plan for handling of garbage and beach cleaning and a tender for selecting a suitable agency has also been finalised.
