However, the salvage operations need to kick start as soon as possible as the grounded ship contains huge amount of bunker oil.
He said that the required machineries to salvage the vessel has been arranged by the charterer of the vessel and if the agitated WISL workers permits access to the salvage team, then, the operations would commence at 11 am on Saturday.
Jeyakumar was speaking to reporters after a joint meeting attended by all the stakeholders including Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) Goa, Coast Guard, officials of state administration, representatives from WISL management and the representatives of charterer of the vessel, at his office on Friday afternoon.
“As informed by the representatives of vessel charterer, they have arranged for all required machineries and manpower to kick start the salvage operations any time, but at the same time we have been facing another problem from the WISL workers side as they are not allowing the team to start the work. The workers are adamant that they would allow the team to start the work only if we organize a meeting with Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar,” Jeyakumar said.
“As we need to take up salvage operations on priority, we have made some arrangement for their meeting with the chief minister later this evening and if the issue is resolved, then, the operations would start by 11 am on Saturday,” he said adding, “As per the plan, the divers would first seal all the leakages and then we would pump out the water to float the vessel and then other issues with regards to fixing up responsibility would be taken up.”
To convince the agitating WISL workers to allow the salvage operation team to start the work, Jeyakumar also held a meeting with WISL workers and union leader Ajitsing Rane. It was informed that keeping threat to marine ecology in mind, union leader Rane agreed to allow the salvage team to kick start the work. However, the workers were continuously demanding that they need a meeting with the chief minister so as to appraise him about the difficulties faced by them due to non-payment of salaries and to request him to intervene and settle the pending salary issue on priority.
Meanwhile, a team of Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) officials headed by senior scientist Jenica Siqueira on Friday collected another sea water sample from WISL premises to ascertain whether the oil spillage has increased or not. Also the Indian Coast Guard’s biggest pollution control vessel ICGS Samudra Prahari has arrived in Goa to handle the situation arising due to oil spillage from M V Qing.
