Vessel, crew stranded in outer sea for 2 years

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KOCHI: Caught in legal tangles, the ordeal of six crew members of Meka I, the dredging vessel which came to Kochi from Mumbai for ..

KOCHI: Caught in legal tangles, the ordeal of six crew members of Meka I, the dredging vessel which came to Kochi from Mumbai for dredging operations here, continues even after about two years. With the dispute currently in the Kerala High Court, the vessel and crew members are virtually stranded in the outer sea in Kochi.
It was in 2009 that Meka I, a vessel from the Meka Dredging Group in Mumbai came to Kochi for basin dredging at the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL). However, the CSL soon cancelled the pact with the vessel as it did not meet the standards. Then the crew members were in a difficult situation as the vessel was detained by the Cochin Port Trust. Following an email complaint from Ajithkumar Pillai, the captain of the vessel, the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KELSA) intervened in the issue. The issue was temporarily settled as the owner of the vessel agreed to pay a part of the pending salaries of crew members. However, only some of the crew members went back to Mumbai. As many as six crew members are still with the vessel.

Currently, the ship is stranded in the outer sea as no berthing facilities are available with the port trust. "We can't let the berths remain idle. Unlike other vessel, if Meka I comes to the berth it will remain there, which will affect the vessel operations at CPT," port trust officials pointed out.

"There were a total of 22 crew members. We came for dredging during SeptemberNovember 2009. The dredger was not working properly, following which the contract was cancelled. Most of the crew members returned to Mumbai when the issue was temporarily settled. However, some of them stayed back. Neither the owners of the vessel nor the authorities are taking any action to repair the vessel and bring it back to Mumbai," pointed out Ashwini Kumar Puri, former second engineer with the vessel who went back to Mumbai.