An emergency meeting has been called on Thursday to find out ways to float the vessel or to at least empty the oil from the vessel.
According to the information, the passenger vessel M V Qing, earlier owned by Sahara India and presently chartered by Mumbai based Trinity Leisure Private Limited (TLPL), was brought from Europe at WISL yard on January 9, 2014 and since then the vessel was lying at the yard awaiting repairs.
TLPL officials wanted to get the deck portion of the vessel repaired and then convert the vessel into a floating hotel by changing its interior (possibly casino), but due to several reasons, the work got held up for last two and half years and due heavy rains since last few days, rain water gushed into the ship though opened doors and windows, causing the vessel to tilt on the starboard side.
“Due to incessant rains, water gushed into the ship through the open windows and doors of vessel. Slowly over the days the rain water got accumulated in the vessel and on Tuesday the vessel initially started tilting on the starboard side. However, on Wednesday morning the ship again tilted extensively after which sea water gushed inside the vessel which was floating few meters above the sea bed. Due to this the vessel got grounded,” MPT Chairman I Jeyakumar informed Herald.
He further said, “Though there is no need to worry at the moment. However, slight concerns have been raised, as the ship presently has oil and fuel stored in it, but the same is presently intact. We had discussions with the Coast Guard as well as the oil companies having storage facilities at MPT so that if we cannot float the vessel, then we could at least pump out the fuel and store it in an empty tank (bunker tank).”
Soon after receiving the information, the shipyard officials along with Indian Coast Guard, police, district administration and Mormugao Port Trust officials rushed to the site and all agencies have been monitoring the situation continuously.
“Today morning, we were worried that the ship might roll over the starboard side and damage the huge floating dock of WISL. We have been observing the situation and efforts are on to ensure that the vessel is floated on priority,” said Coast Guard DIG Manoj Baadkar.
