Team Herald
PANJIM: After 48 days of remaining grounded on rocks off Dona Paula, the vessel Nu Shi Nalini was re-floated late Wednesday night by Dutch company Marine Masters and was towed away towards Mormugao Port Trust.
News of the naphtha-laden ship being salvaged was broken on Twitter by Ports Minister Michael Lobo, who wrote, “Naphtha loaded vessel Nu Shi Nalini which was stuck on a rock has been successfully re-floated. The vessel is expected to be towed to MPT in next one hour.”
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that work to refloat the vessel Nu Shi Nalini containing naphtha is underway on a war footing.
“Yesterday they were supposed to refloat the vessel, but that did not happen,” he had said.
Sawant also assured Mormugao MLA Milind Naik that the stranded ship will not be brought to Sada (MPT) to be unloaded. Earlier, Naik had met Sawant and objected to bringing the ship to Sada to unload naphtha.
“The unloading of naphtha in the thickly populated area is very dangerous. I have also told MPT not to bring the ship to Sada,” he said. People of Vasco have opposed any moves to bring the ship, currently stranded off Dona Paula, to Sada.
The vessel is laden with about 2,000 tonnes of naphtha, 50 tonnes of heavy oil and 19 tonnes diesel.
Despite the threat of leakage, the government maintained that for the safety of the ship’s cargo containers, the cargo tanks are daily inerted by nitrogen to keep the level of oxygen low. The ship was encircled with booms to contain any possible oil spill.
