Container ship runs aground near Kolkata

KOLKATA - A Kolkata-bound container vessel ran aground on a sandbar of Hooghly river at Noorpur in West Bengal Saturday, port authorities said.

The Kolkata Dock System (KDS) bound vessel, which was carrying logs from Malaysia, got grounded close to the spot where two container ships collided last month, said Ajey Mukund Ranade, deputy chairman of KDS of the Kolkata Port Trust.

“The vessel ‘Nazis’, which was being guided by a KoPT pilot, strayed from the navigational channel and got grounded in the South 24-Parganas district,” Ranade told IANS.

“We can’t do anything now. We are waiting for the next tide. Once that comes, the water level will increase and the ship will move again,” he said.

KoPT sources blamed the pilot’s negligence for the incident. “He is supposed to know the terrain well. Had he been careful, the ship would not have strayed away from the navigational channel,” they said.

The Gibraltar-registered container vessel Tiger Spring, after unloading in the KDS, was manoeuvering through the Rangaphala navigational channel when it was hit by Bahamas-registered ship Green Valley, at the confluence of the Hooghly and the Rupnarayan rivers at Nurpur in South 24-Paraganas district Nov 22.

Tiger Spring is now grounded on the sandbar just beside the navigational channel awaiting repairs.