Rough sea delays Pangaon Express’s salvation

Two months have gone, but the Pangaon-bound container vessel Pangaon Express is yet to be salvaged that sank in the bay near Noakhali's Bhasanchar on July 6 with 72 import-laden containers.

Officials of the private firm that operates the ship and the salvage firm it engaged blamed persisting adverse weather and turbulent sea for the delay in salvaging the ship and the goods it was carrying.

Upon request from the importers, the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) last week sat in a meeting with the ship's operating and salvage firm to expedite the operation.

In the meeting, the salvage firm assured the CPA that they would start shifting the onboard containers from September 10 aiming at reducing the ship's weight.

However, the officials of the salvage firm told The Daily Star that they need one more week to start the job as the sea is still rough.

Around 70 per cent work of passing wire ropes beneath the ship is complete, which was required to make it steady as part of efforts to salvage it, they said.

And a relatively calm sea is needed to start shifting the onboard containers with the help of barge mounted crane, the officials added.

Fearing that at least 22 loaded containers might have been washed away by this period, officials of the ship's operating firm said the rest 50 containers carrying heavy items, including steel goods, which were stacked inside the hatch are still on board.

They believe a portion of these steel goods can be recovered for use.

The Pangaon Express owned by the CPA was transporting 72 import-laden containers from the Chattogram port to Dhaka's Pangaon Inland Container Depot when it tilted to one side due to strong waves around 12 nautical miles off Bhasanchar on July 6 noon when three containers fell off into the sea.

As water started entering into the vessel, the crewmembers managed to ply the ship around 4 to 5 nautical miles towards the coast.

However, it finally grounded and submerged near Bhasanchar coast.

The ship's private operating firm, Sea Glory Shipping Agency, earlier sought help from Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) to engage its salvage ships Rustam and Hamza, but BIWTA said it cannot rescue the ship for the lack of logistics capacity.

Salvage ships Rustam and Hamza are not fit to cross the bay, said Md Sabur Khan, joint director of BIWTA Chattogram.

Sea Glory initially engaged a private salvage firm Motaleb Enterprise, but it also did not have the capacity to do the job.

Sea Glory Manager Mainul Hossain said they later approached two other firms Glascow Exxon and Prantik Bengal Salvage and Diving.

Exxon demanded a huge amount of money while Prantik opted to wait until October for the sea to become calm to initiate the salvage operation.

Sea Glory finally signed a Tk 4 crore deal with private firm PS Salvage on July 18 for salvaging the ship in 45 days.

Hossain claimed PS Salvage has prior experience of salvaging at least 17 lighter vessels from the same area.

He said the salvage operation faced obstacles and got delayed as there were cautionary signals in every week in the last two months.

It needs to pass five to six heavy wire ropes beneath the sunken ship with the help of divers to hold the ship and make it steady, Hossain said.

It will be possible to shift the onboard containers from the ship once it becomes steady, he said.

The containers need to be shifted to reduce the weight of the ship so that it can be towed to the shore, he said.

Ashraful Alam, managing partner and representative of PS Salvage, said they so far managed to pass five heavy wire ropes with the help of a winch barge.

Claiming to finish 70 per cent of the salvage operation, Alam hoped to start lifting the containers within a week.

Informing that the onboard containers can be shifted with barge-mounted crane, Alam said calm sea and favourable weather are required for the job otherwise the barge carrying the crane may face same accident.