Bangla barge hits sand bank, sinks in Hooghly

KOLKATA: A Bangladeshi barge lost control and sank in the Hooghly at Nurpur in Diamond Harbour early on Monday morning.
The barge, carrying 690 tonne steel wire from Budge Budge to Narayanganj in Bangladesh, had 13 on board including an Indian.
All crew members were rescued by two country boats that were in the river then.
A salvage operation will be launched on Wednesday morning to recover the cargo, said the representatives of R S Shipping, who were shipping the cargo to Bangladesh.This is the fifth instance of a Bangladeshi barge sinking in India this year.
The barge ��� M V Nilan ��� set sail from Budge Budge at 4.30 am. It reached Diamond Harbour in three hours. At Nurpur, it hit a sandbank and tilted. The crew members tried to drop anchor but the barge had already started to sink. Within the next half hour, the vessel had completely submerged with only the top half of the hull sticking out.
Crew members jumped into the water and were rescued by the local boats. "A strong current made the barge revolve and change direction. It then hit a sandbank and tilted dangerously. At that point, we realized it will sink. We jumped into the water and luckily the boats happened to be close by," said Mohammed Nazmul Hussain, a crew member.
The barge, operating under the Indo-Bangla protocol on inland shipping, would have taken another seven days to reach its destination. R S Shipping representatives, however, could not give any estimate of the cargo. "We hope to complete the salvaging operation within a week," said Sheikh Aslam, a representative of the company.
Meanwhile, Ramnagar police station informed that the crew members will be put up in a launch that will remain anchored on the river until the recovery work has been completed.
Meanwhile, BDO Samar Ghosh said, "The boat was sailing from north to south but it is strange how it sunk in a west-east direction. An enquiry will be launched by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).
"We will try and find out why this keeps happening," said Arun Roy, director, IWAI.
Kolkata Port Trust sources said although the accidents have occurred within KoPT's jurisdiction, there is nothing they can do to verify the sea-worthiness of the barges. Under the protocol, barges from Bangladesh or their crew cannot come under the scanner in India.