With the exercise of removing fuel and various types of lubricants and oils from the aground Bangladeshi ship MV Maa nearing completion, efforts are now on to tow it back into the deep waters in the second phase.
After removal of oils and fuel, the 3,000-tonne ship is now about 40 tonnes lighter.
MNC at helm
Resolve Marine, an MNC that specialises in salvage operations, has been entrusted with the task of executing the second phase.
The first phase that involved pumping out the fuel and oils was successfully executed by the Visakhapatnam-based Gill Marines.
It is learnt the an expert team, comprising senior specialists from the Netherlands and the US, is already in the city and that on-and-off-shore survey work is being done.
Special software
According to Mr. Surinder Gill of Gill Marines, who is also assisting the team from Resolve Marine, the MNC has a special software that can simulate the entire operation before actually executing it.
“The entire operation is simulated in computers. Various factors such as tide, swell, wind and water pressure are taken into consideration inch by inch,” said Mr. Gill.
If everything goes as per the plan, the ship may be towed back on November 14 or 15, when the high tide will reach its maximum strength.
Sources in the Visakhapatnam Port Trust says that as per the chart, the high tide may give a swell in the sea by up to 2 metres.
It is learnt that a high-power bollard pull tug is being requisitioned from Singapore to tow the ship back.
The 80-metre ship, with 15 crew members, ran aground near Tenneti Park in the city on October 13 due to bad weather. The ship lost both its anchors and drifted towards the shore from the anchorage point.
‘Reports baseless’
Meanwhile, clearing the air on the reports in a section of the media that the State government is planning to buy the ship to convert it into a hotel, the Navship Marine Services, the agents of the vessel, said that the reports were baseless. The contract to salvage the ship was already awarded to Resolve Marine and efforts were on to tow it back, they said.