REMOVAL OF RIVER PRINCESS HAS AT LAST BEGUN

PANJIM: The work on cutting and removal of the River Princess was being carried out on a war footing ever since it began on Monday and the staff of Arihant Ship Breakers, the firm that bagged the contract, has so far cut around 10 per cent of the ship and around 60 per cent of the vessel was expected to be cut before monsoon.

A visit to the site on Saturday revealed that the front portion of the vessel up to upper mast canton has already been cut and removed. Mr Bernard Rodrigues, a senior management official of the ship breaking firm, expressed confidence about cutting up to 60 per cent of the 240-metre-long vessel by the time the rough sea conditions set in ahead of monsoon.

Three barge-full of scrap has already been cut, including some that was cut by the earlier contractors. Of the three two barges loaded with scrap of the ship have been anchored at Britona for a couple of days and the third was expected to be brought to Britona late on Saturday evening.

While the government has made arrangements for unloading the scrap at Britona, the failure on the part of the state government to pay the customs and central excise duty amounting to over `3.94 crore in advance has prompted the central government officials to deny permission to unload the scrap.

The director of tourism, Mr Swapnil Naik told The Navhind Times that the state government being the deemed "owner" of the vessel has to make the payment to the central government agency and that the amount was expected to be paid by Tuesday (March 22) following which the scrap would be allowed to be unloaded.

Mr Rodrigues said that 56 technical staff members have been carrying out the cutting work since Monday and a group of another 50 workers have come down from Mumbai to join the operation in the past few days. He also said that specialist undersea cutters and divers would be joining the operations on Monday.

The Arihant official said the workers presently engaged in cutting of the vessel would by Monday clear the front portion making way for the specialist divers to take over. He said that upper portion of the vessel up to three metres above the waterline would be cut till the monsoon and rough weather sets in.

He further said that his management has brought four barges with a DWT capacity between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes. Besides, four cranes (two of 80 tonnes capacity each, one of 400 tonnes capacity have been brought to the site of ship cutting while another of 50 tonnes capacity was placed at Britona to facilitate unloading of the scrap. Three tugs also have been pressed into service.

The work on cutting the vessel begins at 6 a.m. and is stopped at dusk because it cannot be carried out in absence of light. He said that his management has arranged for a power supply which would be installed within next three days prompting the workers to carry on the work till late hours.

Mr Rodrigues also stated that while it would be easy to cut the upper portion of the vessel, the underwater portion would take considerable time as the sand that has settled in the underwater part of the vessel has hardened.

He also said that "unknown" persons have already made away with copper and other valuables from the ship and there was also possibility of some of the engines having been removed.  Meanwhile, the Arihant management has erected a barricade on the Candolim beach so as to prevent people from venturing into the sea for bath etc and avoid any untoward incident.