Salvage crew fails again to drag vessel stranded at Karachi beach

KARACHI: The salvage operation of Cargo motor vessel (MV) Heng Tong 77 grounded at Karachi’s Seaview beach again ended in failure on Wednesday, ARY News reported.

“The salvage company will be given two to three days to drag the beached ship,” Director General (DG) Ports and Shipping said. “We will follow the legal path if the company will fail to tug the vessel out,” the DG said.

“Permit issued to the salvage company’s plan could also come under scrutiny,” DG said.

The vessel’s current value is around two million dollars and the foreign rescue expert had demanded one million dollars to drag the ship out, sources said.

“Sea Max have no expertise to salvage this type of vessel. It is a ship breaking firm and have no experience to drag a beached ship,” according to sources.

“A two-and-half hours long effort on Tuesday to drag the vessel in the sea was also resulted in failure.”

The 98 metres in length and 20 metres wide vessel MV Heng Tong 77, with a capacity of 3,600 deadweight tonnage, was said to be waiting for a crew change outside the Karachi harbour while on its way to Turkey from China last month when tidal waves caused it to lose its anchors and start drifting towards the shore.

An official earlier said that the salvage crew have two more days to re-float the stranded vessel, otherwise, the high tides will subside with the waning moon.