Oil tanker breaks loose in squall at Goa port, drifts towards capital city
The Coast Guard said efforts were on to secure the ship to tug boats and tow it back to port.
An unmanned tanker believed to be loaded with 3,000 tons of naphtha began to drift dangerously after its anchor snapped at Goa’s Mormugao Port Thursday afternoon, the Coast Guard said.
Efforts were on to rein in the tanker which was anchored at the inner berth at the Mormugao Port since July this year.
“Mormugao Port is handling the incident. We are closely monitoring the situation,” Akshay Jain a spokesperson for the Coast Guard, said.
Mormugao Port is located at the Mouth of the Zuari river and south of the State capital Panaji. According to officials familiar with the matter, the ship got away on account of the ongoing inclement weather, high waves and strong winds and drifted towards Dona Paula in the capital city of Panaji.
Efforts were on to secure the ship to tug boats and tow it back to port.
In another incident, a fishing boat capsized earlier Thursday morning off the coast of Mobor in South Goa throwing the five fisherman into the rough sea.
“While two fisherman managed to reach ashore by swimming, one was rescued by a lifeguard posted in Mobor while the other was assisted by a water sports operator on a jet ski. One of the persons who fell overboard is still missing,” Drishti Marine, the state’s lifeguard agency said in a statement.
A Coast Guard helicopter has been pressed into service to look for the missing fisherman.
The Meteorological Department has warned that the well marked low pressure area located in the over east central Arabian Sea has intensified into a depression on Thursday morning lay centred about 360 km west-southwest of Ratnagiri (Maharashtra), 490 km southwest of Mumbai (Maharashtra).
“It is very likely to intensify further into a deep depression during the next 12 hours and into a cyclonic storm during subsequent 12 hours. It is very likely to move east-northeastwards till 25th October evening.
“Squally wind speed reaching 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph very likely to prevail over east central Arabian Sea and along and off south Maharashtra, Goa and north Karnataka coasts which is very likely to increase becoming gale force winds, speed reaching 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph,” the Met Department has warned.
