ABHISHEK LAW/P MANOJ Kolkata/Mumbai, May 16
Container ship ‘Kota Rajin’,which ran aground at theSyama Prasad MookherjeePort, Kolkata (former KolkataPort Trust), was re-fl��oated onSunday.
The vessel had runaground on Friday on its wayto Kolkata from Singapore.
According to Vinit Kumar,Chairman, Syama PrasadMookherjee Port, there hasbeen “no major impact” ontrade and secondary chan-nels were opened to allowother vessels to come in dur-ing the period when re-fl��oat-ing operations were on.
Shoaling in channel “The forward part of the ves-sel, Kota Rajin, had run intothe shore and had embed-ded there. It was re-fl��oated
on Sunday afternoon,” hesaid.
The container ship, with acapacity of 600 TEUs (twentyequivalent units) had runaground at the Falta stretch— a channel maintained bythe port — a few kilometersoff�� Kolkata. Of the 511 TEUsthe ship was carrying, 162TEUs were for Haldia Dockand the remaining 348 TEUsfor Kolkata.
The Falta channel has beenfacing shoaling — wave
shoaling is the eff��ect bywhich surface waves enter-ing shallower water changein wave height — therebyleading to diffi��culties in nav-igability and lower draft.
According to port offi��cials,the shoaling caused the con-tainer ship to change courseand it ran aground. It wasstuck to the shore.
“Navigating riverine portsrequire expertise and therehas been shoaling too. Thisled to the incident, “ a senior
offi��cial involved in the re-fl��oating operations said, re-questing anonymity.
Port offi��cials used excavat-ors (JCBs) to loosen the sandthereby enabling release ofthe forward part (called bul-bus bow in shipping par-lance) of the ship.
“Two tugs (tug boats) fromKolkata Dock and three fromHaldia Dock were used to re-fl��oat Kota Rajin,” the offi��cialinvolved in the operationssaid. The “unexpected” shoal-
ing in the Falta stretch hasraised concern among theport authorities and theshipping industry.
Rare occurenceThe depth at Kolkata DockSystem (KDS) is typicallylower during the winter sea-son and the lean draft seasonextends from late Novemberto February every year.
“But this year, there was arare occurrence of suddenshoaling at Falta stretch ofthe shipping channel,”Chairman Vinit Kumar toldstake holders in an April 16letter.
“This was an abrupt phe-nomenon and could not bepredicted. As a result, draftcuts of 0.2-0.3 m had to bemade and the lean draft sea-son extended beyond Febru-ary to March,” Kumar said.
To overcome this, the portdeployed additionaldredgers and a secondarychannel was opened-up forshipping. The draft reduc-tions have since been with-drawn.
Grounding had ‘nomajor impact’ ontrade; secondarychannels opened up
Container vessel Kota Rajin aground
Container ship that ran aground re-fl��oated at Kolkata port
