The weather at the grounding site of the 'SSL Kolkata' remained extremely bad, but Coast Guard ships with pollution-control and firefighting equipment on board, were on standby despite the rough sea state
The weather at the grounding site of the 'SSL Kolkata' remained extremely bad, but Coast Guard ships with pollution-control and firefighting equipment on board, were on standby despite the rough sea state. Even Dorniers were being launched despite poor visibility. Fortunately, there was no oil spill until now while arrangements were being made to pump out the 211 tons fuel. A Dracone Barge has reached the site. The plan was to pump out the fuel from the ship’s tanks and transfer it to the barge that has a capacity of nearly 100 tonnes. Once filled, the barge resembles a longish balloon and continues to float. It is then towed to shore where it discharges its contents and returns for another operation. The barge is a very sturdy equipment and can operate even when the sea state is four or five. Initially, it had been planned to use the underslung ‘Bambi’ buckets of the Indian Air Force Mi-17 V5 helicopters to remove the fuel from the ship. This option was turned down as the capacity of the bucket was only three tonnes and helicopters would have to carry out several sorties to empty the fuel. If all went well, transfer of fuel from the ship’s tanks to the Dracone Barge could start on June 28.
