Given the urgency to complete the task of removing the pontoon, Arihant officials have now decided to cut the pontoon in two at its existing location and then pull the same.
Sources said that the decision to cut the pontoon at its existing location was taken after they realized that the sand and water in the broken hull had made the vessel much heavier.
“Till date, we have made over five attempts to pull the pontoon. However, the winch used in the operation broke down once, while the metal chain broke down thrice, due to which work was held up at regular intervals, though we managed to pull the pontoon over 20 meters towards the higher portion of the beach,” said a source.
He further said, “We even tried to pull the pontoon after cutting 20 tonnes of the 350-tonne vessel so that it becomes easy to pull, but the weight of the vessel is still high due to the presence of sand and water in the hull. We have now decided to cut 40 percent of the pontoon’s starboard side and convert the vessel into two.”
The task of cutting the pontoon into two (40:60 portion) will be taken up either by Monday night on Tuesday morning. The salvage operation team expects that, by Wednesday evening, they will complete the cutting work, while the operation to pull both portions will be completed in another 10 days.
