Saturday, November 10, 2012

De-ballast is key to ship being salvaged


Seven submersible pumps to be used to drain out 8,000 tonnes of ship ballast water

C Shivakumar
Chennai:
Two attempts to tow stranded oil tanker M T Pratibha by Malviya 21 on Friday proved futile and authorities are banking on de-ballasting 8,000 tonnes of water from ship by using seven submersible pumps before they start the fourth attempt during high tide on Saturday morning.
Mercantile Marine Department officials said that only Malviya 21, a 133 tonne Bollard Pull, was used for both the attempts to tug the vessel on Friday instead of highly anticipated emergency tow vessel SCI Ratna which is anchored outside Chennai Port.
While MMD officials refused to comment on why SCI Ratna is not being used, it is believed that the salvagers of Pratibha Shipping Company, have till now restrained themselves to Malviya 21.
Meanwhile, officials confirmed that the services of tug vessel Malviya 21 will be prolonged further for two days. The vessel was available for the salvaging operations till Friday.
But the focus is more on de-ballast operations. Ballast water is the water carried by ships to ensure stability, trim and structural integrity. Currently, the plan is to deballast 8,000 tonnes of water and it was to be done using the ballast pumps. Interestingly, these ballast pumps are not working and salvagers are using three submersible pumps. But the quantum of water released is less so four more are being hired to deballast the water. It is expected 8,000 tonnes of water will be drained out by night so that the operation will be carried out early in the morning before 5am.
Officials claim that once the, water is drained, the ship will come up. Since the top sand will be loose, it could be tugged easily when the tide is high. Meanwhile, sources said that the ship is likely to be anchored inside Chennai Port instead of being sent to L&T’s Kattupulli shipyard.

Meanwhile, Indian Navy officer-incharge Tamil Nadu and Puduchery Commodore Amar K Mahadevan at a press conference ruled out Navy’s involvement in the salvaging operation and said the Navy doesn’t have tugs. He also highlighted how Indian Navy came to the rescue of crew of stranded ship and rescued them early morning. 

No comments:

Post a Comment