So why the delay in towing away the ship? Well, first the then BJP government said the ship owners—River Princess is a Liberian vessel once temporarily registered in the Republic of Vanuatu—wanted to get the ship cut right there, so as to avoid the towing cost of about Rs 7 crore, and sell the scrap for about Rs 16-20 crore. The owners maintained that the solution was to cut the ship into big pieces and take it away, a process that would require six months.
The then BJP government went ahead and floated international tenders to salvage the ore carrier. A UK-based company, CrossChem, bagged the contract. However, the company working against all odds could not complete the contract in the stipulated time, says the present Congress regime. The latter claims it had given the salvor a 110-day deadline. However, a CrossChem representative claims "we had done only 38 days of work on the ship...the government has unjustly terminated our contract".
Meanwhile, the state has now got "experts" to reassess ways to salvage the ship. It’s expected to float new tenders soon. It may be recalled that the village panchayat of Candolim had filed a PIL in this regard (withdrawn later). Says sarpanch Agnelo Fernandes, "We had government assurance that the ship would be removed." Five years later, it appears the ‘Princess’ will have to weather yet another monsoon, which may prove a disaster to the local environment.
