By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : A company based in Andhra Pradesh has been awarded the contract to plug the holes in a ship that sank off Orissa’s Paradip port Sep 9, a port official said Sunday.
“We have finalized the contract for the work to plug air vents, sounding pipes and other holes to ensure that there is no oil leakage from the ship,” port deputy chairman Biplav Kumar told IANS.
The work has been awarded to the Visakhapatnam-based J. Enterprises and Dives, which specialises in underwater repair and maintenance work. The work commenced Sunday, the official said.
The vessel under a Mongolian flag ran aground in the harbour area off the port in Jagatsinghpur district, 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 spot where the ship went down is close to the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, one of the world’s few remaining nesting sites for the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles that come to the area every year around this time to breed.
If the oil spill spreads, it could pollute the marine environment and pose a serious threat to the turtles, a wildlife body has warned.
Port authorities said small quantities of oil have started oozing out from Sep 21, probably from the settling and service tank of the engine room and reaching the shore.
The port authorities last Wednesday issued two tender notifications, one calling for spot quotations to plug the air vents, sounding pipes and other holes to prevent oil spill.
Another tender was floated for taking out the oil from the sunken vessel.
“The last date for submission of bids for taking out oil is Oct 5. One port trust vessel with oil containment booms and skimmers has been deployed near the sunken vessel to tackle the spilled oil along with a Coast Guard vessel,” the port official said.