FIVE YEARS ON, BLACK ROSE WRECKAGE YET TO BE REMOVED Wednesday, 10 September 2014 | PNS | KENDRAPADA | in Bhubaneswar == Cost of removal to be Rs 120 cr but worth of scrap Rs 4 cr == Five years ago on September 9, 2009 the Mongolia-bound cargo ship MV Black Rose had sunk near the Paradip coast. In spite of concern over the environmental threat posed by the sunken ship, neither the owner of the ill-fated vessel, nor the State Government has shown enough interest to remove the wreckage of the ship from the sea. The capsized ship is lying submerged for all these years and presently it remains sand cast as well. The ship measures 187.7 meter in length. While sinking 6 km from the breakwater of the Paradip Port, it had a cargo load of 23,847 MT iron ore. It had as many as 27 crew members. The Paradip Port authority with the help of the Marine Police and the Coast Guard had managed to rescue 26. Oleksander Ilyushchenko, the Chief Engineer of the ship who was a Ukrainian national was found dead. On November, 2010 last, adjudging a PIL, the High Court had directed the then district Collector of Jagatsinghpur to take possession of the MV Black Rose as the “receiver of wreck” and proceed with salvage operation. The petitioner had stated in the PIL that the incident posed a grave and impending danger to an extensive part of the marine and coastal environment off the seaboard of Odisha due to oil spill and a serious threat to the wildlife of the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary and the Bhitarkanika national park. The huge wreckages within four nautical miles of the coastline act as an artificial obstruction or a breakwater. It is an unwanted buffer to natural sea waves and flow patterns of water current which could disrupt their long shore sediment transport rate (LSTR), leading to erosion of the sea beach. A Divisional Bench of the High Court had also directed the Director General of Shipping to provide all help to the Jagatisnghpur district administration in terms of expert assistance and funds as provided in the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 for salvage operation of the abandoned capsized ship after a PIL filed by Guru Prasad Mohanty, secretary of Peoples Union of Civil Liberties seeking judicial intervention so that the Jagatsinghpur district magistrate acts as the “receiver of wreck” and takes the responsibility of fishing out the sunken ship. But the salvage operation has not been undertaken following non-release of funds from the Union Shipping Ministry. The cost of clearing off the debris is being estimated at Rs 120 crore, while scrap materials accrued from the debris would hardly fetch Rs 4 crore in return. The port trust submitted a report in this regard a year back to the Shipping Ministry. Meanwhile, the State Excise Minister Damodar Rout recently demanded a CBI probe into the entry of cargo ship into Paradip without a valid licence and permission. It may be noted here that the Marine police of Paradip on October 10, 2009 had filed a case under various Sections against Singapore based Black Rose Maritime Ltd, Pacmar Shipping Private Ltd and the Hong Kong based charter of the ship Devi Trading Co Ltd on the charges of furnishing forged and fabricated insurance papers and other docs to anchor the Mongolian ship in the Paradip port. dailypioneer/state-editions/bhubaneswar/five-years-on-black-rose-wreckage-yet-to-be-removed.html
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 06:48:13 +0000
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