PANAJI: While the government is yet to
decide the fate of ArihantShipbreakers, Madgavkar Salvage has written to the
government to take action against the Mumbai-based ship breaking company for
making false claims.
It has demanded that fresh tenders be floated
for removing the balance wreckage lying on the seabed off Candolim beach
instead of engaging the same company that it alleges tried to cheat the
government.
The tourism department has called for a
meeting of its monitoring committee on April 5 to decide about the methodology
to be adopted for removing the buried wreck below the sand.
Arihant Shipbreakers has also submitted to
the government its action plan to remove the balance wreckage after it was
brought to its notice- following National institute of oceanography's (NIO)
under water survey that some portion of the ship embedded in the sea was not
removed.
The NIO's under water survey revealed that
a portion of ship of dimension 180mx40M was still lying on the seabed. In May
last year, Arihant Shipbreakers had submitted to the government it had
completed the job.
The letter of Anand Madgavkar will also be
placed before the monitoring committee when it meets on April 5.
Anand Madgavkar of Madgavkar Salvage, when
contacted told TOI, that in the first place, the company bluffed that it had
fully removed the entire wreckage when actually 8,000-9,000 tonnage of wreck
was still lying on the seabed.
Madgavkar Salvage at least on two counts
participated in bids in the past when tenders were floated for removing the
vessel.
Madgavkar said the shipbreaking company
only removed the top portion whereas the most difficult part is yet to be
removed.
"The government should initiate
criminal proceedings against the company," he said. The monitoring
committee will also decide on the issue of bank guarantee. The contractor was
twice told to renew the bank guarantee of 10 crore, but it has declined to do
so claiming that their bankers have advised them to obtain customs clearance
and environmental clearance for renewal of the bank guarantee. The contract was
to remove the vessel within 180 fair weather days at 99 crore on 'no cure no
pay' basis.
Source: times
of india. 29 March 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment