Clear Danger: Abandoned vessel threat at Vizag Port

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Nov 9, 2013: An unlit and abandoned cargo vessel, MT Pratibha Neera, anchored in the busy shipping lane in the approach routes of Vizag port, has turned out to be a potential threat to the safe passage of regular cargo vessels and also in a worst scenario may bring entire shipping activity at the port to a standstill.

The likelihood of the anchor chain breaking, due to severe weather conditions, is also a possibility. In a worst case scenario, it can lodge itself in the entrance to the breakwater, bringing shipping activity in the port to a complete standstill until the wreckage is
removed.

The ship belonging to Mumbai based Prathibha Shipping Company Ltd run by the kin of Maratha strongman, Sarad Pawar has arrived in the Port of Visakhapatnam in the October last year.  It is almost a year since the ship has been in the port limits of Vizag left abandoned.

The ship seems to be now unseaworthy on many counts. Last year another ship belonging to the same shipping firm, MT Prathibha Cauvery stoked a controversy off Chennai coast while it ran aground and its crew members jumped for safety when the low intensity Cyclone Nilam hit Tamil Nadu coast. Prathibha Neera has embroiled in a legal battlebetween the shipping firm and a Singapore based supplier on payment ofdues and is stranded at Vizag port.

And it’s a moment for the Vizagites to heave a sigh of relief as the recent severe cyclone Phailin spared Andhra Pradesh and so Prathibha Neera averting a major mishap to occur.

Bombay High Court in June this year, ordered the arrest of the cargo vessel anchored at Vizag port. And as per the order, the ship won’t get clearance from the port authority to move until further orders.

Prathibha Neera has come to Vizag port on Oct 29, 2012 to take an approximate 20,000 tonne of Light Sulphur High Speed Diesel Oil from a local refinery. Ever since the case taken a legal turn, the ship was said to be abandoned by the owners.

Presently coast is experiencing a spell of cyclones and storms in the area. Due to the age of the ship and the prevailing weather conditions, it’s a strong possibility that the vessels anchors may drag or in a worse case, break leaving this big mass of metal to float around uncontrolled, says Capt Sebastian Ravi Fernandes, Master Mariner who has been in the sailing profession for nearly twenty years on various types of tankers.

“Should this happen, other installations in the area - breakwaters, submarines, naval ships, merchant ships in the area, etc are all put through dangerous situation,”  he adds.

More than 10 vessels from various countries reach Vizag port in a day carrying different cargo.  Prathibha Neera is a double hull oil tanker built in 1986 at USSR.

“To a layman, this could be compared to a situation if you have a boulder lying unlit on a busy highway. Until such an obstruction is removed, the likelihood of an accident is more or less definite and imminent. In 2002, a vessel Tricolor sank in the English Channel after colliding with the Kariba. The Tricolor sank in the busy shipping lane. In the days that followed before the wreck was removed three ships collided with the sunken wreck. Given the present conditions, the likelihood of an incident occurring are definite and imminent. The authorities need to act before a situation that is already bad does not deteriorate,” Ravi added.

If the ships sink in a busy shipping route, the wreck would lie below the water surface, reducing the amount of safe water below the keel for ships to enter and leave port. In such a scenario, wreck removal costs would have to be incurred to render the shipping lanes safe. Wreck removal costs often run to the tune of millions.

“The owners seem to be running the vessel on a skeletal staff and that’s the reason why it is not event lit. On humanitarian grounds we are providing safe drinking water to the crew. Acting on their requests we have sent a tug to reposition the ship during the cyclone Phailin warnings,” said a senior official of the traffic department of
Vizag Port.