The Indian Coast Guard is towing drifting tanker MT Anasthasia-1 away from the Katchall island, near the bio-sensitive ecology of pristine Nicobar islands. In an sea-air coordinated operation on Sunday, the Coast Guard commenced towing the tanker, after its owners failed to provide a tug for assisting their drifting vessel, carrying 910 MT of bunker fuel.
The vessel with 24 crew onboard was enroute to Dubai and has been facing a total power failure since 19th November. According to the Coast Guard, the vessel was drifting dangerously towards Katchall island with the risk of running aground and posing dangers of oil spillage off Nicobar islands.
On receipt of information by Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre (MRCC) Port Blair, NAVAREA warning (Navigational warnings are issued to ensure safety of lives at sea) and International safety Net was activated for alerting merchant mariners.
After an ICG boat from Campbell Bay was rushed for assessment of situation, ICG Multi Mission Vessel Vishwast on routine surveillance off Nicobar islands was also pressed into action.
An ICG boarding team embarked the adrift tanker and repaired the Fleet Broadband Communication equipment, got the Automatic Identification System operational and prepared the anchor chain cables of the vessel for manual lowering.
Considering the grave situation, despite no response from the vessel’s owners, ICG ship swiftly commenced towing of the 243meter long vessel to safe waters. It is significant that the ICG vessel is towing a tanker measuring nearly 2.5 times its own size and carrying nearly 1000MT of fuel.
