Grounded oil tanker off Mumbai will be auctioned

Lily

B.R
Staff member
Mumbai The oil tanker MT Pavit, which had run aground off the Juhu-Versova beach in north-west Mumbai on July 31 last year, is all set to go under the hammer.

The vessel, which was re-floated and towed away a fortnight after the accident, is currently beached off Dabhol port off the Ratnagiri coast in coastal Konkan region of Maharashtra.

The state-run Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) has chosen to put up the 999 tonne MT Pavit for auction, after the ship's Dubai-based owners and managers Pavit Shipping and Prime Tankers LLC, respectively, failed to respond to a notice seeking clearance of dues they owed to the MMB.

The owners-managers of the oil tanker owed dues of Rs 33.5 million (Dh2.30 million) to the MMB, towards salvaging and shifting the grounded vessel to Dighi Port first on August 15 and later to Dabhol port.

The MMB has called for bids for the sale of MT Pavit, a Panama flagged vessel, from the prospective buyers. The 11-year-old vessel will be sold on "as is where basis".

"The sealed offers will be opened on May 10,2012. The minimum reserve price that we have fixed is Rs 4.75 crore [47.5 million]," a senior MMB official said.

Owned by Pavit Shipping Lines, Dubai, and managed by Prime Tankers LLC, Dubai, MV Pavit had reportedly been abandoned off Oman Coast on June 29.

There were 13 crew members, all Indians, on board. They were rescued by a ship of Great Eastern shipping and a US naval warship on June 29 and brought to Kandla port in the neighbouring Gujarat state. The vessel was not carrying any cargo. It had drifted and run aground off the Mumbai beach.
 
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