PANJIM, SEPT 3
Has Salgaoncar Mining Industries Pvt Ltd, (SMIPL), which had been flaunting its interest in wanting to remove the grounded M V River Princess free of cost, developed cold feet after the State government agreed to offer it a first chance to do the job?
The SMIPL failed to attend a joint meeting convened by the State Disaster Management Authority today morning to negotiate with the bidders for removal of the vessel.
Swapnil Naik, director of tourism when contacted said a representative of SMIPL was not present for the meeting but a letter containing certain terms was submitted by it.
The meeting was headed by Revenue Minister Jose Philip D’Souza as Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, who is also a chairman of the State Disaster Management Authority, is in Delhi for Congress elections.
The SDMA is now likely to meet in the next two days to finalise the bidder as the court hearing on the public interest litigation (PIL) of River Princess Hatao Manch (RPHM) is fixed for Monday.
It must be recalled that the government has already declined to grant SMIPL ownership of the vessel, a pre-condition it has set for removing the vessel.
Skipping of today’s meeting by SMIPL has strengthened apprehension of the government authorities about its real intentions.
“It had never imagined that the government would agree to its demand but situation has changed now and it probably doesn’t know what to do and hence these delaying tactics,” said a government officer commenting on absence of SMIPL in today’s joint meeting.
The government authorities also believe that SMIPL doesn’t have necessary capability to actually remove the vessel and are doubtful that it will able to execute the work within one fair season (220 days) as claimed by it.
Meanwhile, the members of SDMA negotiated with other two bidders — Titan Salvage and Madgavkar Salvage.
The director of tourism clarified that none of the two bidders have claimed ownership of the vessel as precondition for removing it.
Singaporean company, Titan Salvage is the only bidder which submitted that it would able to remove the vessel within a period of six months whereas Madgavkar Salvage said it would need three years to totally remove the ship wreckage.
The Singaporean company has also agreed to give performance guarantee at the rate of 10 per cent of the tender amount Rs 125 crore as quoted by it, said Naik.
It may be recalled that the government had zeroed on Titan Salvage but could not go ahead with awarding the tender after SMIPL ran a public campaign casting aspersions on the government’s decision.
