Container ship stranded in Hooghly after collision, crew safe (Second Lead)

KOLKATA - A container ship was stranded in the Hooghly river Tuesday after colliding with another container vessel in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district, police said. The 12 crew members of the ship were safe.

A Bahama-registered container ship - Green Valley - collided with a Gibraltar-registered vessel - Tiger spring - at the confluence of Hooghly and Rupnarayan rivers at Nurpur of the district.

The ‘Tiger Spring’ was severely damaged and started sinking initially but now the salvage has been done, said Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy.

Roy, who rushed to the spot, said: The river channel became narrow after its western flank became silted. So up and down ship movement was restricted through the eastern flank of the river and the accident took place because of mis-communication between the pilots of the two ships.”

A five-member committee has been set up to probe into the matter, he said.

“The Colombo-bound ‘Tiger Spring’ - after unloading its containers at Kolkata Dock System (KDS) of Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) was going back through Rangaphala channel, while ‘Green Valley’ - coming from Singapore to KDS, hit it in the middle at Nurpur,” said Arun Kumar Bagchi, director, marine department of the port trust.

The incident had no impact on ship movement to and from KDS as the collision occurred outside the shipping channel, Bagchi, who was supervising the operation, told IANS over phone.

A senior port trust official, on condition of anonymity, said: “At Sandheads in Bay of Bengal, the pilot of ‘Green Valley’ saw ‘Tiger Spring’ was in a horizontal position while manoeuvering 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 the official. KoPT Chairman Madan Lal Meena said: “Soon after the incident KoPT officials rushed to the spot for the salvage operation.”

“The extent of damage to ‘Green Valley’ is not so devastating and it was brought to Diamond Harbour dock for repair. However, the Tiger Spring’ has suffered heavy damages. Our employees will start repairing work from tomorrow (Wednesday) before shifting it. The vessel is likely to be removed by Thursday, Meena told IANS over phone.

“Though both the vessels are owned by private companies, we will provide the technical support as the accident occurred within our jurisdiction,” said Meena.

A rescue team was also sent to the spot from East Midnapore district.

East Midnapore Superintendent of Police Ashok Biswas said: “The 12 crew members of the damaged vessel are safe.”

“We have already detained ‘Green Valley’ at Geokhali, under our jurisdiction. But the case will be looked into by the South 24 Parganas police,” Biswas told IANS over phone.