Indian Navy does not have the expertise to salvage the 110-tonne vessel
A file picture of TRV72.
Visakhapatnam: The Indian Navy is likely to rope in a private agency to salvage the 110-tonne Torpedo Recovery Vessel (TRV) that sank 35 nautical miles off Vizag coast on November 6. One sailor died, four naval personnel went missing and 24 persons were rescued, when the TRV, on which they were returning to Vizag harbour after a routine mission, sank.
Since last Thursday, a massive search operation has been underway to trace the missing Navy personnel —z one officer, two divers and one crew member of the TRV. The search area has also been extended from 35 nautical miles to 275 nautical miles by Thursday, given the drift and sea currents. However, there has been not much effort from the Navy to salvage the sunken vessel.
“From the day one of the mishap, our priority and focus have been on finding the missing personnel. Chances of such a huge vessel drifting away to faraway area are less, hence we didn’t concentrate much on salvaging the vessel,” an officer of the Indian Navy said.
Since, Indian Navy doesn’t have expertise in salvaging such huge vessels, a private agency, having expertise in salvage operations, will be roped in at a later stage.
“Since such mishaps occur very rarely, we don’t have special expertise in salvaging such vessels. We do have expertise in salvaging small vessels. There are many specialised private agencies that have expertise in salvaging such heavy vessels,” pointed the officer.
It was almost five months after INS Sindhurakshak had sunk at Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, the Indian Navy signed a contract with Resolve Salvage and Fire Private Limited, at a cost of about
Rs 200 crore, to salvage it.
( Source : dc correspondent )
Next Story
