Stuck with 2 unfit ships, man moves HC to tear them

CHENNAI: With two non-viable vessels — ‘Rising Star’ and ‘Rising Sun’ stuck in the

Kasimedu

fishing

harbour

for over eight years, the owner of the vessels has approached the Madras high court for permission to break the

ships

and remove the dismantled parts, after the

port

authorities refused permission.


When the plea came up for hearing, Justice R Mahadevan passed oral directions to the port authority and the environment department to depute an official to be present in the court on September 14 to assist in the issue.

According to Meenam Fisheries, the two ships weigh more than 100 tonnes each and are registered with the Port of Chennai as fishing vessels. In 2010, operation of the two ships were stopped due to non-viability of its usage and were brought to the permitted berths in the Kasimedu fishing harbour limit.

As the sea-worthiness of the vessels deteriorated, the company commenced repair work with the permission of port authorities on July 31, 2017. On October 24, the authorities directed the company to stop the repair work. ‘Rising Star’ got damaged further and started sinking on August 25, the petitioner said.

When the company approached the authorities to permit it to make arrangements to prevent further sinking of the vessel, they refused to grant permission, the petitioner said.

Stating that nearly 75% of the vessel has sunk, the company made another representation to the authorities to take immediate action to stop the sinking, by bringing the vessel to its original position and engaging experts along with departmental staff. Since the authorities failed to respond, the company approached the high court.

Stating that both the vessels have to be broken, cut down and the pieces taken out from the berth, the petitioner claimed that if the ships are not moved it would cause disturbance to the movement of fishing boats.

The company added that its plea for breaking the boats is not an isolated request, as the authorities had allowed dismantling of vessels on earlier occasions.


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