Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has given casino vessel Lucky 7 till October 10, 2017 to move out of Miramar and to River Mandovi to carry out an underwater survey to examine the damage cause due to its grounding.
Former Union Minister Advocate Salman Khurshid appeared on behalf of Golden Globe Hotels in the court on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters outside the court at Altinho, Khurshid said the vessel management had managed to shift it for around 400 to 500 meters away from where it was grounded and because the tide had receded and in the absence of enough draught they weren’t able to float the vessel completely.
“So therefore, we moved an application for extension of time so that next time we have enough tide and we could try to move it out, where we will then conduct an underwater survey and after temporary repair we will take the vessel away,” he said.
He said that court has granted an extension till October 10 based on this. “We looked into the tide chart, between October 5th to 9th there will be ample tide, and we have seen that and accordingly informed the court. Now we have to report back to the court on October 10,” Khurshid said.
The High Court on September 6 had allowed Golden Globe Hotels to anchor their ship in River Mandovi to carry out an underwater survey till September 24 following consent of the government of Goa.
Lucky 7 has gone through a series of controversies. There was first an attempt made to bring the vessel to River Mandovi but this failed after the vessel dragged and grounded on the sand bar at Miramar.
The Court, earlier this month, had come down heavily on Golden Globe Hotels and shown its resentment over the petitioner for failing to salvage the vessel from Miramar. The High Court observed that the vessel stuck at Miramar is damaging the environment.
