Panaji, Oct 30 (IANS) A multi-agency operation to pump out naphtha from a tanker that got stranded off the Panaji coast last week received a setback on Wednesday after a hydraulic pump, flown in from Mumbai by the Navy, fell into the sea while being ferried to the site.
“That (hydraulic pump) accident would delay the process of emptying the tanks of the stranded tanker Nu Shi Nalini by a couple of days,” Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said.
The Navy in a statement said, the machinery had to be dropped in the sea for the safety of aircraft as well as tanker.
“While making its final approach to the ship, the aircraft experienced increasing vertical oscillations. The crew attempted to control the aircraft, but keeping in mind safety of the aircraft and likelihood of damage to the ship’s deck as also risk of fire due to the highly inflammable naphtha on the ship, considered it prudent to jettison the load into the water next to the ship, preventing a potential mishap,” the statement said. Naval divers had been deployed to retrieve the gear, it added.
Earlier, Sawant gave a clean chit to Goa Urban Development Minister Milind Naik, who has been accused by the Congress of bringing the tanker whose engine was damaged in an accident in Kochi earlier this year to Goa’s Mormugao Port Trust to broker a deal with a buyer in the coastal state.
“The process of emptying the vessel will be delayed by a couple of days,” Sawant said.
The operation, involving the Navy, the Indian Coast Guard, the Director General Shipping, the Mormugao Port Trust and state agencies, to transfer naphtha and nearly 50 tonnes of oil and 19 tonnes of diesel to other vessels has already been delayed by several days on account of rough sea.
The tanker ran aground on October 26 on the rocky shelf. According to officials involved in the operation, no oil spill has been reported in the vicinity of the vessel. However, the Coast Guard has stationed one oil spill response vessel onsite.
Nu Shi Nalini was anchored five nautical miles off Goa’s coast on October 24, when weather experts had forecast stormy conditions off the coastline, on the instructions of the Mormugao Port Trust.
The Goa government has filed an FIR and the police are investigating the possibilities of criminal negligence that could have led to the accident.
The Congress has, however, accused Goa Minister Milind Naik of summoning the damaged vessel to Goa. “Since the ship was handicapped and contained naphtha cargo, Naik tried to strike a deal on behalf of a local firm to buy naphtha in a distress sale. He is the one responsible for getting the vessel here, which is now an ecological risk,” Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar alleged.
Giving a clean chit to Naik, Sawant said the Minister had nothing to do with the incident. The cargo has been purchased by an UAE firm.
Sawant also said two barges of 200 and 400 tonnes capacity have been requisitioned to transport naphtha to another tanker, which is enroute from the UAE.
“The barge will go into deep sea and transfer naphtha to the tanker, which is coming from the UAE. After the naphtha is emptied, the ship will be repaired,” Sawant said.
–IANS
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