TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has responded with a proposal to the government, to ascertain if the wreckage of the transhipper River Princess is still lying beneath the water off Sinquerim beach and asked for funds to carry out the survey.
The Tourism department had asked NIO to check if the debris was cleared as claimed by Mumbai-based Arihant Ship Breakers.
“We have submitted our proposal to carry out the underwater survey, which would mostly be based on geophysical work like magnetic survey. Our experts are ready… The work should begin this month,” NIO Director Dr S W A Naqvi told Herald.
On October 20, the salvage firm had claimed that it had completed removal of the remnants of the submerged wreckage of M V River Princess and it was open for an inspection by the government.
The government had asked Goa Shipyard Ltd to monitor the work and said the payment would be released only after NIO submits its inspection report, confirming that every bit of the wreckage is removed.
Arihant had won the Rs 100 crore contract in 2011 to do ship-breaking of the grounded vessel off Candolim coast and remove the debris within 180 days. The company submitted a completion report in May 2013 but a previous NIO survey found large remnants still lying beneath the water. That survey, Secretariat sources confirmed to Herald, was conducted gratis.
The exercise comprised of bathymetric, magnetic, sonographic and sub-bottom profiling, and was further backed up by underwater diving operations.
“We understand NIO has been carrying out surveys without charging any money, on social-obligation. In the present case, since a private company is involved, it is contemplated that funds could probably be recovered from the concerned agency,” a senior bureaucrat said.
The proposal is presently under consideration with the Finance department.
