Visakhapatnam: A Vietnamese vessel, MV Hai Duong 09, tilted to one side (towards starboard side) at the EQ berth number 5 in Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) here in Vizag city at around 3.30 pm on Wednesday while iron billets were being loaded on to it.
The 11,000-tonne vessel reportedly started tilting suddenly and settled down after touching the berth.
Sources said that JM Baxi Company is the stevedores of the ship. All the crew on the ship are safe and restoration work has been initiated.
The vessel was charted to export iron billets of RINL. About 1,200 MT was loaded when the vessel tilted, with the balance of weight shifting to one side.
While loading cargo on to a ship, the operators need to maintain the balance. However, sources said that the crane operator wrongly loaded the blooms on to one side of the ship.
The ballast tank of the vessel was emptied before the loading began on Wednesday morning.
The chairman of VPT, Mr M.T. Krishna Babu, told newsmen that there were no injuries and causalities in the incident and efforts are on to remove the loaded cargo to enable the ship to stabilise on its own.
Sources said that a major mishap was averted as the ship tilted towards the berth. Had the ship tilted towards the waters, the vessel might have sunk. It was the first time in VPT that a ship was tilted in the harbour while loading the cargo.
