River Princess to be cleared by April end
PTI, PANAJI | 20 March 2012 18:05 IST
MV River Princess, a huge oil tanker ship that had run aground on Goa's Candolim beach 12 years ago, will finally vanish from the spot by the end of the next month.
The cargo ship is being broken into parts by professional ship-breakers, said Tourism Director Swapnil Naik.
The MV River Princess, a 26 metre long cargo ship, had hit the beach on 6 June 2000 due to stormy monsoons.
It is being broken and removed by a Mumbai-based ship breakers.
Naik said that almost 80 per cent work of breaking and taking away the ship in parts has already completed, while the remaining work will be over by the end of next month.
Mumbai-based Arihant Ship Breakers Pvt Limited was given the contract of cracking the ship.
After several attempts to tow away the ship had failed, the authorities were forced to allow the vessel to be broken, despite environmental concerns.
The existence of the ship had also resulted in the sand erosion on Candolim beach, which is adjacent to the picturesque Calangute beach in North Goa.
Several measures like geo-tubes to control the sand from crumbling in the water had been taken, but in vain.
Naik said that the company was awarded 180 working days to remove the wreckage as per the contract. "They should be able to finish the work within the given time," he said.
The company, which began the work in March 2011, had taken a break owing to the monsoons, which makes weather unfavourable for the salvage operations.
"We will count the exact working days that the company has worked. Sometimes, they had to curtail the work halfway due to gusty wind conditions, all the factors would be counted," Naik said.
Please note the overall length of the vessel is 260+ m