Coast Guard on alert for floating containers off Goa coast

Mangalore Today/CNN-IBN

Goa, June 29: Indian Coast Guard is looking out for containers that might be driven towards the Goa-Konkan coast after falling off from a wrecked ship off Goa coast. MV MOL Comfort, a container carrier owned by M/s Mitsui Osaka Lines, Japan, laden with 4,268 containers and reportedly on a voyage from Colombo to Jeddah, broke up in mid-sea earlier this week near Goa coast.

Goa government had earlier said there were reports that the ship’s cargo consisted of arms and ammunition. On June 24, a part of the ship was reported about 530 nautical miles from Panaji. Coast Guard Deputy Inspector General SD Bhanot on Saturday said in Panaji that the containers might sink midway as the ship was far off. "There is no fear that they might reach the coast, they will sink midway. ICG is keeping a close watch," he said.

 

Smit Salvage Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based salvage company, is in the process of securing two parts of the ship, which drifted apart, and towing them away to safety, a senior official of Goa government said. Authorities in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts of Maharashtra too are on alert. "We have asked the fishermen and people living in the coastal belt not to touch any container, if it floats onto shore," Captain VH Ingle, a port official of Maharashtra government, told PTI.



Ship with arms for Syrian rebels in distress in the Indian Ocean - News


A container ship supposedly carrying weapons for Syrian rebels broke into two parts and sank during a storm about 530 sea miles off the coast of Goa in the Indian Ocean, Times of India reports.

According to Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar, reports that the ship was carrying weapons and that it was sailing to Syria are yet to be verified.

The 300-meter-long vessel, named MOL Comfort, sank in a storm while sailing from Singapore, Times of India says.

The ship’s operator – Mitsui OSK Lines – has dispatched a number of tugboats to the scene of the disaster.

The 26-member crew has been rescued, the shipwreck poses no danger to the coast, Parrikar said.

Goa’s coastguards are doing their utmost to prevent the ship’s debris from floating to the 300-mile exclusive economic zone.

 While the MOL Comfort ship is still in international waters, its owner says there could have been a leakage of fuel but not in large quantities.