Hurdles cleared to refloat
River Princess
Sandesh Prabhudesai
20 September 2002
Comes
the third tourism season and the grounded ship MV
River Princess is still lying off Goa beach to welcome
the tourists.
The only good news is that the state authorities are now almost relieved
from all the legal hassles, except a petition filed
in the high court by the local Candolim village panchayat.
The Goa government has adopted a tough approach, not to break the ship
in the sea but to try and refloat it, so that it could
be towed away, avoiding any kind of pollution on the
coast.
With the ship being grounded hardly 200 metres away from the famous
Candolim-Calangute-Baga stretch of the beach two years
ago, any attempt to break the ship would obviously cause
environmental hazard and severe damage to Goa’s tourism.
Putting an end to all the legal hassles, the tourism director has thus
rejected the scheme proposed by the ship owner Anil
Salgaoncar to cut the River Princess into pieces
and transport it landwards.
“Forget actually cutting the ship”, states tourism director N Suryanarayan,
“the very idea of cutting the ship will drive away tourists
from Goa”.
The ship grounded with a ruptured bottom has already caused one oil
spill earlier while the authorities still do not rule
out the possibility of more oil spilling out if the
issue is not handled with utmost care.
While the high court order on the issue is now expected next week,
the state is planning to invite tenders on refloating
the ship. “We can definitely tow it away seawards without
causing any damage to the tourism”, states chief minister
Manohar Parrikar.
Though stated, refloating the ship and towing it away is a real challenge
before the authorities as some renowned firms had already
withdrawn earlier, expressing their inability to refloat
it. The ore carrier has developed cracks on the hull
structure as well as bottom of the vessel.
However, even if the high court passes the order next week, the authorities
doubt whether the actual work of refloating the ship
would begin by October end, which is the beginning of
the peak season of Goan tourism.
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