Another Ship Runs Aground at Mumbai's Juhu Beach

An unmanned Panama-flagged merchant tanker, the MT Pavit, runs aground near Seven Bungalows, India yesterday and was suspected to have drifted from the Persian Gulf, according to police.

The vessel was abandoned by its owners off the coast of Oman on June 29th due to engine failure and ingress of water in the engine room. Its 13 crew were rescued and brought to Kandla port by a ship of the Great Eastern Shipping and a US naval warship, according to Coast Guard officials.

MT Pavit, which has a capacity to hold 1,000 tonnes of cargo and is 77 m long, has ten tonnes of fuel and 'gas-oil' each. The ship's owners had believed that the ship had sunk some days ago. 

The repeated incident has raised questions about coastal security as maritime agencies were aware about its presence only after it safely berthed off the beach. The chances of an oil spill were said to have been high and negligible as the ship contained 30 MT fuel and it was double-bottomed.

As a result, an FIR under IPC section 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) was registered against the owner/s, captain and crew members of the vessel MT Pavit, according to police officials.

According to The Times of India, the emergency tug vessel SMIT Lumba, which was involved in the rescue of the Singapore-flagged MV Wisdom that ran aground in the same area six weeks earlier, has moved towards Pavit to render emergency assistance. 

The owners are engaging salvors (tugs) for its removal.

For information regarding the MV Wisdom, which ran aground in the same location just weeks earlier, click here.