Team Herald
VASCO: The floating dry dock owned by Western India Shipyard Limited (WISL) that was tilting on Friday due to ingress of water in wind tank is unfit for any operational use as its mandatory fitness certificate has expired, informed Chairman of Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) I Jeyakumar.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Jeyakumar said that, “After the issue of water ingress in wind tank of the floating dry dock was reported, our engineers inspected the site and found that the dry dock owned by WISL was tilting. Inquiry with the local WISL management staff has revealed that they have already made arrangement to pump out the water from the punctured wind tank and as per the latest report the situation is not alarming and is under control.”
Commenting on the condition of the dry dock which had reportedly tilted on two occasions in last six months, Jeyakumar said, “Our inquiry has revealed that the fitness certification of the floating dry dock has lapsed. As per the procedure, any floating dry dock or vessels has to be certified by Indian Registry of Shipping (IRM), a nodal agency issuing fitness certificate for dry dock or vessels and only then the vessel or dry dock would be allowed to be used for operations,” he said.
However, as WISL management failed to get the dry dock certified and failed to maintain the dry dock, such incident of water ingress in the wind tank is getting reported,” he added.
Meanwhile, WISL workers union has claimed that local management officials of WISL are staying in the guest house located in the port town but have no time to attend to such emergencies.
After the news appeared on Herald, they swung into action and supplied diesel in the morning. “We have started the work and have pumped out water and the dock is safe, presently. We feel that there is some leakage in the wind tank from bottom and it is high time that MPT should pull up WISL management for taking up responsibility of dry dock and force the management to avoid any possible disaster from dry dock,” the workers said.
