24-hr watch planned for vessels

With frequent instances of vessels drifting too close to the coastline, officials of the directorate general of shipping (DGS) are now planning to locate a common channel through which these vessel pass and have 24-hour surveillance in that channel.

With frequent instances of vessels drifting too close to the coastline, officials of the directorate general of shipping (DGS) are now planning to locate a common channel through which these vessel pass and have 24-hour surveillance in that channel.

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Officials said that studying the route through which MV Wisdom and MT Pavit entered the local waters, they can find out a common narrow passage and will be making provisions for all-day surveillance.

MT Pavit ran aground off Juhu beach on Sunday morning.

“We will work on some calculations and see if a common narrow passage through which these vessels pass can be located, then monitoring that strip will help us intercept the vessels and towing operations can begin there itself,”

Satish Agnihotri, director general of shipping, told Hindustan Times.

Considering the favourable weather conditions till August 4, the DGS wants salvers to undertake operations in the next two days.

After a statutory notice under Section 356J of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958, was served to the owners and managers of the grounded oil tanker MT Pavit, they have come forward and carried out the assessment of the situation at ground level on Monday and a salvage plan will be formulated by them.

The operation is not expected to be too difficult.

“Pavit is a young vessel and has a life of at least 10 more years. The owners might not want to send it to the scrap yard. After the salvage operations, its engine can be repaired and refloated,” said Agnihotri.