CALCUTTA, July 1: The Calcutta Port Trust is considering a plan to insure the 126-mile Hooghly shipping channel up to Calcutta port, CPT chairman H P Roy said on Monday.

He said the crisis created by the capsize of the outbound Korean cargo vessel right in the middle of the navigational channel had prompted the CPT to consider insuring the channel.

The port has been losing Rs 1 crore in revenue since June 19 when the M V Green Opal sank with a cargo of steel off Birlapur after colliding with a Lash barge, 20 miles downstream of the city port. Ship movements have been curtailed severely as the CPT grapples with the problem of removing the wreck.

Roy said insuring the channel was a novel idea and yet to be formulated into a proper plan.

K Y Chu, the Korean owner of the vessel has refused to pay up the security deposit of Rs 16 crore which a foreign shipowner is mandatorily required to do under the Indian Shipping Act and the Major Port Trusts Act as testifying to his commitment of removing his vessel from the channel.

The CPT chaiirman Roy, however, did not comment on the reasons for the refusal. The CPT has filed a case against the company in the Calcutta high court over this issue and the matter is now sub judice.

The CPT has given the owner of the vessel a month's time to remove the vessel. Roy said that the company was yet to submit its action plan for salvage operation. The shipowner has given an undertaking to the port that it would remove the wreckage `if technically feasible'.

Roy said that if the Koreans were unable to salvage the ship, then CPT would have to do it, `but it will take time as we have to follow certain procedures'. The shipowner has not indicated any unwillingness to do the job, Roy admitted.

A preliminary investigation done by the port's marine department has shown that the Lash barge was largely to blame as it strayed right out of its designated channel on to the path of the coming vessel.

Meanwhile the Calcutta high court on Monday extended the interim order of injunction restraining the master of the sunken Korean ship `Green Opal' and managing director of the charter company, `Dooyang Shipping' from leaving the city until further order, according to a PRI report.

Justice Shayamal Kumar Sen observed that the presence of the officials in Calcutta was necessary for investigation into the sinking of the ship and for its salvation.

Justice Sen directed the respondents to file affidavit-in-opposition by July 21 and the petitioner, Calcutta Port Trust to file reply by July 25.

The matter would come up for hearing on July 29.

The vessel sank in the river hooghly on June 20 last month.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.