Scrap bids are being solicited for an elderly cruiseship that has spent the past two years sitting partly submerged at the West India Shipyard in the port of Mormugoa.
The 35,100-gt Qing (built 1982) was refloated in June by salvors appointed by Balaji Fuels , a Gujarati company that purchased the ship shortly after the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) petitioned the Bombay High Court to have the ship declared an abandoned wreck and allow it to organize its disposal.
Ship recycling sources told TradeWinds that the Qing is being circulated around the breaking yards at Alang. It will have to be towed to its final destination as its engines are inoperative.
Previously MSC Cruises’ Melody, it arrived in Mormugoa at the end of 2013. Its then owner, Lucknow-based Sahara India Pariwar (SIP), intended to convert it into a luxury floating hotel off Goa.
SIP’s subsequent financial problems left the project abandoned at the ship sitting at the shipyard. It came dangerously close to capsizing in June 2016 because of what was described as an accumulation of rain water caused by heavy monsoonal rains.
Intervention from the Indian Coast Guard and other authorities saw it righted but sitting on the seabed.
The Bombay High Court held several auctions over the next couple of years, but no buyers were ever forthcoming. Sales efforts were also frustrated by unpaid workers at the financially troubled WIS, who blocked any attempts by authorities to access or salvage the ship.
The workers dispute was recently solved through legal action, allowing the Qing to be raised and the remaining 350 tons of fuel oil pumped out.
The MPT told the Times of India recently that their next goal is to remove WIS’s sunken floating drydock.
WIS, a subsidiary of ABG Shipyard, is currently under a liquidation order issued by the Mumbai-bench of India’s National Company Law Tribunal.
