Dutch firm to salvage stricken Tiger Spring near Calcutta

THE Dutch salvage firm of Smit-Llyod has been engaged to pull the damaged 917-TEU Tiger Spring from the riverbed at the narrow Hooghly Point south of Kolkata and salvage her containers, reports the Calcutta Telegraph.

The Rotterdam company faces a struggle because of the strong current at Hooghly Point, which make anchoring lighters difficult. The Colombo-bound Tiger Spring's containers must be removed before the ship can make port, said experts, who said the deck crane would be needed to unload the ship.

The 1,095-TEU Bahamas-flagged Green Valley, the other ship in the collision, has been taken to Diamond Harbour.

Calcutta Port Trust chairman ML Meena said the Tiger Spring owner had undertaken the salvage of the ship, which was said to have drifted from its course because of a locked wheel. But port officials have not ruled out human error.

"It is unclear how the two ships came so close. They should not have even tried to pass each other in that narrow stretch," a river pilot told the Telegraph. "Both ships knew their locations and should have avoided crossing each other at Hooghly Point."

"The Tiger Spring, after unloading at Kolkata Dock System (KDS) of Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), was going back through Rangaphala channel, while the Green Valley, coming from Sandheads in the Bay of Bengal to KDS, hit it in the middle at Nurpur," said KoPT marine director Arun Kumar Bagchi, according to Indo-Asian News Service. "The [Tiger Spring] ship was severely damaged and started sinking."

Another port official said: "At Sandheads, the pilot of the Green Valley saw the Tiger Spring was in a horizontal position while manoeuvring, and thought that the latter ship would be able to change its position before his ship came near it. But the anticipation of the pilot was wrong and his vessel hit straight in the middle of Tiger Spring."

Said East Midnapore police Superintendent Ashok Biswas: "We have detained the Green Valley at Geokhali. But the case will be looked into by the South 24 Parganas police."
(Source:www.schednet.com)