MANGALURU: It’s been five days since the Ibis dredger barge crashed against breakwater off Ullal and was stranded at sea. While 23 crew members were rescued after they spent the night at sea, efforts to remove the barge have not yet succeeded.
Meanwhile, the barge continued to list further on Thursday.
As the roughness of the sea reduced on Thursday noon, a tug belonging to Dharti Infrastructure Co, which also owns Ibis that was entrusted to construct breakwater at Ullal, tried to remove the barge. But the barge crashed against the reef of the breakwater and got trapped.
Extricating it from the reef has made the task even more difficult.
Meanwhile, a team of experts from Philippines and Singapore has inspected the sinking barge and is likely to give a report to the district administration and the company on how the barge can be removed.
Lifting furnace oil, engine oil and diesel from the barge also could not be done on Thursday. It is vital to remove the oil as it is likely to affect aquatic life if discharged into sea.
Locals allege that removing the barge would incur a lot of expense and that the company is trying to avoid it.
Though district minister K G Jagadeesha asked the company to remove the barge within 24 hours on Wednesday, their attempts have not yielded anything so far.