By Lenny Barretto
Daijiworld Media Network - Goa (MB)

Panaji, Jun 21: She is one Princess who is actually getting a treatment befitting a Princess in Goa...well it’s the sea vessel River Princess.

After a fateful six-year languish, grounded vessel M V River Princess is witnessing the seventh monsoon after it accidentally hit the coast of Candolim in North Goa, 10 kms away from capital city of Panaji.

The Liberian flagship, which lost its control in the windy monsoons of the year 2000 and was grounded at Candolim in June 06, has gained notoriety due to the state government's failure to get this ship off the coast.

Playing with the options like carrying it back by floating or breaking it at the shore itself, the state government has finally decided to carry the boat mid water and have it towed to the shipyard in Alang Bhavnagar in Gujarat, for final scrapping..

Gujarat-based Jaisu Shipping has bagged the contract for the same and work on it had begun since earlier this year.

The then tourism minister Dr Wilfred D’Souza, who had lost the June 2, Goa polls, had assured that the ship would be towed away within three months. However, since D’Souza lost his post, the shipping company is still struggling with the huge ship.
 
"If they fail to get it off within three months, penalty of Rs one lakh each was supposed to be levied on them. I don't know what's happening now,'' D'Souza told reporters here recently after losing the elections.

The ship belonging to Anil Salgaoncar, who won the June 2, Goa polls as an independent candidate, is reportedly considered as an environmental hazard. After initial possibilities of the ship breaking in two pieces during monsoons and spoiling the entire shoreline which comprises important beaches like Baga and Calangute, the ship still remains firm in the waters.

The shipping company which undertook the operations has a gigantic task of pumping out 22,000 tonnes of water and 28,000 tonnes of sand which is imbedded deep into the grounded vessel.

The company instead of ferrying its laborers from across the shore has kept them in the ship itself so that the work can be completed faster. The ship is stuck at a place where sea level is 500 meters deep that is a distance of 12 nautical miles from the coast.

``The shipping firm found a big hole at the bottom of the ship which they had to mend. It took time but the work will be completed before monsoons," tourism department officials stated.

While yet another monsoon is hitting this coastal state, where ship sinking tragedies are a common feature during this season, this mammoth vessel which has become an headache for the tourism department is likely to take few more months, to go to its final destination – the ship-breaking yard.