10-day wait for salvage operations to begin

The city will not get rid of MT Pavit, the ship that has ran aground off Juhu beach, anytime soon.

The city will not get rid of MT Pavit, the ship that has ran aground off Juhu beach, anytime soon.

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The maritime agencies will be waiting for at least 10 days for a favourable high tide pattern in order to start salvage operations.

Meanwhile, the salvagers appointed by the owners of the ship are yet to get clearances from the necessary local authorities like the police, customs and the collector.

“We won’t be able to undertake salvage operations in the next three days as it’s a holiday and manpower will be low,” said an official from the salvagers appointed by the owners of MT Pavit.

Officials with the Directorate General of Shipping said the salvage companies were expected to remove the sand and straighten the tilted ship this week. The final salvage operation was to take place on Friday, however, due to lack of permissions operations didn’t start.

Meanwhile, the amount of oil that is leaking from MV Rak that has sunk 20 nautical miles off the Mumbai coast has reduced considerably.

According to official estimate by the coast guards, oil is leaking at the rate of 7-8 tonnes a day. The vessel was carrying 290 tonnes of fuel oil and 50 tonnes of diesel oil that the vessel was carrying, nearly half of which has already leaked. However statement issued by the Directorate General of Shipping says that the state pollution control board reported to have found fresh traces of oil on the Juhu beach.