Recovery of sunken boats at Vizag fishing harbour turns costly affair

Visakhapatnam: Retrieving the sunken boats at Vizag fishing harbour has turned out to be a costly affair. These boats had sunk on November 19 in a fire incident. So far, 15 sunken boats have been recovered and 14 are yet to be fished out from the seawater.

Altogether 15 divers and two large cranes of 100-tonne and 40-tonne capacity have been pressed into service to take out the boats submerged in sea.

Following the recovery, the cleaning work of these boats will continue for 10 to 15 days.

According to Sheikh Lal Mohamud, Joint Director of the Fisheries Department, Visakha Port Trust, so far, 18 to 20 lakh rupees have been spent for the recovery of these sunken boats as well as cleaning work at the zero jetty. The remaining work is still to be done and it will take more than 10 to 15 days.

Mohamud further says, “Sunken 15 boats were taken out from the seawater and dismantled, including its engine. The iron spares of the dismantled boats could be sold as scrap and wood fibre could not be recycled.”

To recover 14 remaining sunken boats — a large crane with a 100-tonne capacity and a medium-sized crane with a 40-tonned capacity are pressed into service at the Zero Jetty. Fibre ropes are used instead of steel ropes to pull out sunken boats because they are flexible.

Around 15 divers are engaged in salvage operations. They fasten the sunken boats with fibre ropes to bring them out from the seawater. Workers are facing hurdles as many a time, the fibre ropes get snapped.

After retrieving these sunken boats they are moved to 11 Number Jetty from Zero Jetty. Then the fisheries department asks the boat owners to identify their boat. After the identification process, they are asked to take home whatever parts of the boat they want, said Mohamud.