Team Herald
PANJIM: Captain of Ports (CoP) has come forward to aid the international salvage company that is making attempts to tow the casino vessel Lucky 7, by lending a tugboat for the ‘initial pull’.
Sources said that CoP’s 13-ton tugboat will assist the 60-ton tugboat brought from Mumbai for the towing exercise. Golden Globe Hotels Pvt Ltd (GGHPL) has contracted VMS Marine LLC to salvage the vessel, after a failed stint with Arihant Ship Breakers.
“CoP’s tugboat will assist the salvors, but only for the initial pull so that the vessel is moved out. The main tugboat will then take over the towing process,” an official said, expressing hope that the vessel is in deep waters off Aguada Bay on Tuesday.
After managing to turn the vessel 180 degrees on Sunday, the salvors resumed the operation on Monday afternoon. While it failed to re-float the vessel in deep waters during the two-and-half hour operation on the second-day, it managed to pull it off just 50 mtrs the Miramar beach.
“Heavy winds, receding tide forced a halt to the towing exercise. The salvors will make another attempt tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said adding that high tide prediction on Tuesday is expected to be at 2.0m height as against 1.9m on Monday.
CoP officials have been closely monitoring the exercise even as top GGHPL officials and the Egyptian company also make their presence at the beach.
Sources further said that if ‘everything goes well’, the underwater inspection will also be carried out at Aguada Bay. “After the patch-up repairs of the damaged portion of the ship, the underwater survey too can be conducted at Aguada Bay, subject to the situation. There won’t be any need to re-float the vessel to off Campal then,” he added.
