Bids invited to remove oil from ship sunk off Orissa coast

September 24th, 2009 - 12:28 pm ICT by IANS  

Bhubaneswar, Sep 24 (IANS) Paradip port authorities have invited bids from salvage firms to remove oil from a vessel that sank near the port in Orissa 15 days ago, official sources said Thursday. The oil poses a major threat to the coast if it leaks.
The tenders, which were floated Wednesday, invited two a technical bid and a price bid for the salvage and disposal of fuel oil from MV Black Rose, a senior port official told IANS.

The vessel under a Mongolian flag ran aground Sep 9 near the harbour area of the port in the district of Jagatsinghpur, some 100 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, with 924 tonnes of furnace oil and about 25,000 tonnes of iron ore fines.

Twenty seven crew members were on board. All but a Ukrainian engineer, whose body was found 10 days later, were rescued.

The site where the ship has gone down is very close to the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, one of the few remaining nesting sites in the world for the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles. The turtles come to the site every year around this time for breeding.

If the oil spills, it could pollute the marine environment. It could also pose a threat to turtles, a wildlife body has warned.

Related Stories

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Environment |

Subscribe