20000126

High tides help

salvage stranded

ship at Port Qasim

KARACHI: The midnight high tides salvaged the stranded ship at Port Qasim on Monday and it was berthed right away, a PQA spokesman said here on Tuesday.

The MV "Min Noble" ship carrying 55,000 tonnes of coal for Pakistan Steel while transiting the approach channel had run aground on January 24, 2000.

The Port Qasim Authority (PQA) personnel through concerted efforts and taking advantage of the midnight high tides got the ship re-floated on the night between Monday and Tuesday.

The PQA spokesman clarified that the incident did not occur due to poor dredging but the ship had gone beyond the PQA's permissible draft.

"Our permissible draft is 11 metres while the ship was down by 11.5 metres", he maintained.

No damage had occurred to the ship or the consignment, he said.

The shipping operations were not disturbed, the spokesman said.

However, all the necessary efforts regarding dredging of PQA channel were being taken care of as usual.

Comprehensive study for "deepening and widening" of the PQA channel to cater larger vessels, was under process by the competent authority, the PQA spokesman added.

The Pakistan Steel sources confirmed that the ship had been berthed at its Coal & Iron jetty at PQA on Tuesday evening.

However, after unloading it would be ascertained whether there was any loss/damage to the consignment, PS official said.ÑAPP