TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The Captain of Ports (CoP) is set to replace its 30-year-old tug boat with a brand new high-powered tug by mid-September. CoP is also purchasing a new high-speed patrol boat that would be used for surveillance and interception of suspicious vessels.
The tug ‘Pehlvan 1’ is being bought at a cost of Rs 5.5 crore and would be berth at either CoP Panjim port or Briton jetty. The earlier vessel ‘Pehlvan’ is been scrapped and auctioned in October 2012.
A tug boat a is used to tow away vessels stuck mid-sea or washed ashore due to technical problems such as in the event of failure of an engine.
Captain of ports James Braganza said that the present vessel is inadequate to tow away bigger vessels in distress as the vessel was only 4 metric tonne bollard pull capacity. The new tug has a 12 metric tonne bollard pull capacity. Braganza said that the old tug had become too old to even pull the old 600-800 tonne barges but the new tug will be capable of towing away even new barges of 2,000 tonne capacity.
The most interesting feature of the vessel is that it will be equipped with fire fighting capability and on a smaller scale, oil spill dispersion capability also. The tug will also have AIS (automatic identification system) so that it can be tracked from the control room as well as VHF (very high frequency) communications equipment.
Similarly, the CoP is also purchasing new diesel patrol boat with a speed of 30 knots by replacing its old one that is of 1982 vintage. The boat is being bought from Goa Shipyard limited at a cost of 3crore and would commence its operation in November.
