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.
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