On 1 July 2010 07:51, manuel tavares <[email protected]> wrote: > Isn't it normal for the insurance company which insured the ship to bear > the cost of salvage? I thought that this was the norm in the shipping > industry or am I mistaken? Please enlighten me. > > Thanks. > Manuel (Eddie) Tavares >
See the below text. It was published a month or two ago in Goa. Maybe Goanetters could make issues like these the subject of an international campaign. FN Celebrating inefficiency In a few weeks time, Goa will be celebrating an unusual tenth anniversary. A decade of the grounding of the 'River Princess' off Candolim beach also symbolises ten glorious years of our State's failure to take care of public interest against powerful local interests. This is not the only case of its kind, but a glaring example. When Anil Salgaocar, bought the 'River Princess' from the Onassis Shipping Company in California it was no big secret that the ship would not be sea-worthy in a short time. Even if the ship was to be converted into a trans-shipper for loading iron-ore near the mouth of the Mandovi river, there is no excuse for the callousness with which Goa, her interests and her environment was treated -- by both vessel owners and bureaucrats. When the ship reached Goa, it soon lost its Liberian flag and was further downgraded to a Vanuatu flag. Is Goa content with allowing 'flags of convenience' rule? A year later the 'River Princess' lost its Vanuatu flag and hence its insurance cover too. It might have not mattered much to the owners of the vessel, as it was no longer a sea-going vessel. It was by then already de-gutted to some extent on its way to becoming a trans-shipper. But, as a test of how our State takes care of public interest, all the authorities consistently shut their eyes to this contentious vessel's existence. Even though there are an army of public authorities meant to oversee such issues, there was no caution on the part of the Mercantile Marine Department, the Coast Guard, the Captain of Ports, the Indian Navy, the Inland Waterways Authority of India, the National Institute of Oceanography and the Chief Hydrographer. Not surprisingly, on June 6, 2000, when the 'River Princess' drifted to the Candolim Beach, it did not have a flag, any insurance, propulsion system, crew, sea-worthiness certificate or any piece of paper to establish its legal presence. Who then is responsible? At that stage itself, the Government of Goa would have been well within its rights to take possession of the ship, and tow it away to a ship-breaking yard after the 2000 monsoons. After all, the Chief Secretary also carries the designation of being the Receiver of Wrecks. If action had been prompt, and without favour -- as is expected of the State -- the Government of Goa would have spent probably about Rs. 1 crore for the job and the ship breakers would pay the Goa government about Rs. 8 crore for the scrap metal and other recoveries. Now almost 10 years later, Goa has a huge piece of junk sitting off the Candolim beach which itself has been devastated by distorted wave motion caused by the presence of the 'Princess River'. The government has spent over a crore of rupees on litigation and has lost revenue of probably Rs. 50 crore due to reduced number of tourist arrivals. But who cares? Local fishermen, shack-owners and villagers are in danger of losing their livelihoods; Candolim beach will never be the same again. Now, to cap it all, we have spent Rs. 6 crore on geotubes last year which were supposed to protect what is left of the beach from erosion. Recent indications suggest the Government of Goa is going to break the ship 'in-situ'. It is not clear whether the operation will be carried out from the sea-ward side or the land-ward side of the ship. What about the eight meters of ship believed to be below the sea-bed covered by a few thousand tonnes of sand? The ugly, grounded 'River Princess' vessel lying close to what was a beautiful beach, and an eyesore visible from India's first beach resort nearby, is a clear reminder of the failures of our government, the strength of the lobbies that rule Goa, and the lack of any substantial difference between the whichever political label rules Goa, whether the Congress or the BJP.
