Kolkata, March 12 (IANS) A Bangladeshi cargo vessel carrying fly ash sank in the Hooghly river after colliding with a Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) ship on Thursday, officials said.
All 13 crew members of the Bangladeshi ship Mamatamoyee Maa — which was returning home with the load from a CESC thermal power plant — were rescued, though one of them sustained injury, a Kolkata Port Trust official said.
The collision took place around noon in the Batanagar area and the vessel in the Budge Budge area of South 24 Parganas.
Following the damage, the Bangladeshi ship’s sailors brought it close to the jetty at Maheshtala in Budge Budge and even tried to tie it to a tree to prevent it from going down.
However, the tree got uprooted due to high tide on Thursday afternoon and the ship started sinking.
An official said there was a mechanical failure on Mamatamoyee Maa and a crack in the hull following the collision. The KoPT ship Ravindra also suffered partial damage.
A KoPT official said despite repeated warnings the Bangladeshi vessel had intruded into the route designated for KoPT ships.
The KoPT chairman has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Personnel from Kolkata Port Police station have reached the spot. The KoPT was considering ways to lift the Bangladeshi cargo vessel from the river.
–IANS
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