Visakhapatnam: Fuel transfer from MV Maa will take three days time

Visakhapatnam: The Protection and Indemnity Club has appointed MS Gill Marine to remove 41 MT fuel oil and 9 MT diesel stocked onboard the 80-meter long Bangladeshi merchant vessel MV Maa that got drifted ashore near Tenneti Park.

It is reported that Gill Marine obtained permission from various government authorities to take up the work. As there is no road access to the site, where the cargo vessel was aground, a temporary road was laid to mobilise men and the material. It also provided a generator to the vessel, as there is no power onboard.

Visakhapatnam Port Trust mobilised its oil spill response equipment with a dedicated team to the site to provide support to transfer the fuel from the ship sans oil pollution.

Port officials say that it would take two to three days to transfer the oil from the grounded ship to the shore.

Meanwhile, the owner of the vessel has appointed Resolve Marine Private Ltd to undertake the salvage operation to refloat the vessel, which can be initiated only after emptying the vessel to avoid any risk of oil pollution. So far, no water ingress or oil pollution has been reported.

All the 15 Bangladeshi crew are working in tandem onboard. The Bangladeshi vessel was anchored at Visakhapatnam at the anchorage area on September 19 in ballast condition to load 2,800 MTs of Quartzite for the Port of Mongla.

However, the vessel was drifted ashore near Tenneti Park on October 12 due to the strong winds.