Panaji/Vasco: With the weather improving slightly on Thursday, the under-repair cruise liner, MV Qing, stabilized and settled on the shore bed at
Western India Shipyard Limited
(WISL),
Mormugao
. Efforts to salvage the vessel and pump out bunker oil from within it came to naught after
WISL
union workers put a spanner in the initiatives, officials said.
"The vessel has stabilized and is no longer listing, so there is no apparent danger. A representative of MV Qing's owners met us and a plan was chalked out to help re-float the vessel, as it has settled on the sea bed which is around seven feet deep," Mormugao Port Trust (
MPT
) chairman I
Jeyakumar
, said.
Jeyakumar also told TOI that divers have been kept on standby to enter the ship and study the extent of flooding and damage caused. As per the plan, the divers will enter the vessel and block the ingress of more water, while high pressure pumps will be deployed to remove water from within it. The oil on board will also be pumped out. As a contingency measure, the
Indian Coast Guard vessel,
Samudra Prahari
, also arrived at Mormugao to tackle any oil spill.
Coast Guard
officials said MV Qing has 350 tonnes of oil on board and some bunker fuel. Coast
guard
deputy inspector general, Goa, M Baadkar, said
ICGS Samudra Prahari
reached Goa after sailing out from its base at Mumbai early Thursday.
Coast
Guard commandant
Akshay Jain
said the ship has "a crew of more than 80 and specializes in curbing pollution at sea."
Trouble for MV Qing began on Tuesday when incessant rains and turbulent seas caused water to enter its engine room, which had developed a leak. By 8.30am on Wednesday the ship, docked at the berth given to WISL by MPT at
Vasco
, began to tilt precariously.
Mormugao deputy collector
Gaurish Sankhwalkar
, said, "A team of officials from the
Goa State Pollution Control Board
(GSPCB) visited the WISL dock at about 4.30pm and have taken a sample of sea water to check for spillage of fuel, if any."
WISL workers, agitating for non-payments of salaries, obstructed the entry of the GSPCB team by closing the shipyard's main gate, leading Sankhwalkar to summon the Mormugao police.
MV Qing is owned by the
Sahara Group
and was leased to
Trinity Leisure Private Limited
on a bareboat charter agreement last year, for a floating hotel project. Though a crew arrived at WISL with the vessel, a long delay in repairs prompted them to depart in January this year.