Four explosions took place this morning in the merchant ship, MV SSL Kolkata, that caught fire on 14 June while the Indian Navy (Eastern Naval Command) has deployed Special Forces ~ MARCOS ~ to stop the vessel from drifting further towards the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) with Bangladesh.

In a bid to restrict the movement of the burning vessel, the Indian Navy (Eastern Naval Command) today carried out an operation to stop it from drifting towards the IMBL and the ecologically fragile Sunderbans. A team of MARCOS, marine commandos, were winched down aboard MV SSL Kolkata to drop its anchor, as stated by Commodore Suprobho K De, naval officer-in-charge(NOIC), West Bengal.

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Explaining the operation by the Special Forces, Commodore De said: “A MARCOS team along with a Specialist Naval Team (SNT) and few operating officers of the concerned vessel took off from Kalaikunda Air Force Base this morning around 7:30 a.m. in a SeaKing 42 Charlie helicopter. The chopper first winched down three MARCOS commandoes on the ill-fated vessel at 8:30 a.m. with thermal imaging camera and necessary equipment for safety reconnaissance. They ascertained the conditions in the forward part of the ship and later called in the helicopter to lower onboard three crew members of the ship. The team managed to drop the starboard anchor from the ship to prevent it from drifting any further.”

“The MARCOS team then entered the engine room and attempted to start it in order to tow the ship but right at that moment, four explosions took place, two big and two small, in the containers on the upper deck of the ship. It was then assessing the risks that we decided to extract the team from the ship and they were pulled up at 9:30 a.m. Thereafter, they flew back to Kalaikunda Air Force Base,” said Commodore De.

It was known that the SeaKing 42C, a Special Forces chopper, could carry more than 20 people. The Navy ship INS Kadmatt, a corvette, also sailed down from Vizag and was brought to provide assistance to the SeaKing chopper so that in case it ran out of fuel, it could land on the ship and refuel. The Navy also had its Dornier aircraft for surveillance.

Commodore De further added that the operation by the Special Forces had to be carried out in tough weather conditions this morning as the sea was choppy while there were strong winds of around 30 knots.

“Restricting the movement of MV SSL Kolkata was essential as it was gradually drifting towards the IMBL. But now we have restrained its movement and its present location is 22 nautical miles from IMBL, 70 nautical miles from Haldia Port and 10 nautical miles from Bangaduli Island,” the NOIC pointed out.

“The whole operation was done in liason with the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), DG Shipping, Indian Coast Guard, ship owners, agents and salvage specialists, who are reaching Kolkata from Singapore to salvage the ship by 6 p.m. today and douse fire using foam guns and equipments that only they possess. Till now, there has been no oil-spill,” mentioned the NOIC.

Meanwhile, the president of Shreyas Shipping and Logistics, the shipping company which owned the merchant ship, Captain Rakesh Prasad, on being asked about the content inside the containers, said: “It was carrying ‘dangerous cargo’ a term we choose to describe the contents. Each container had different material. Fire fighting equipments were in place but the strong wind helped to fan the fire. We have started an investigation. The vessel was certified by Indian Register of Shipping (IRS).”