Andhra Pradesh: Will the tide turn for the ship that ran aground in Vizag?

Ship M.V. Maa ran aground in Vizag in Oct 2020. Govt planned to convert it into floating restaurant, but works stalled. Gill Marines bought it for ₹1.25 cr. Tourism Dept sought clearances from Forest & CRZ, but only got Forest Dept permission. Velagapudi Ramakrishnababu raised concerns of environment pollution. Experts fear ecological disaster if ship not salvaged soon. Social media popularised ship, making it potential tourist destination.

More than 1,111 days have passed since the 3,000-tonne Bangladesh vessel M.V. Maa ran aground at the beach Tenneti Park, in Visakhapatnam, on October 13, 2020, due to adverse weather conditions under the influence of a depression in the Bay of Bengal.

Due to high salvage costs, the ship owners did not take it back, and the vessel was left along the city’s beach. The ship’s fuel was emptied and it has been left to rust and decay, exposed to the vagaries of nature.

As there was no objection from the ship owners, the State government announced that it would be converted into a floating restaurant as part of efforts to develop the city as a tourism hub.

As of Saturday, the ship was found rusting with no activity happening. Not an inch was being moved in the modification works.

In the first week of December 2021, the then Tourism Minister Muthamsetty Srinivasa Rao said that the works on the restaurant had started and tourists would be allowed after three weeks. After the announcement, the tourist excitement continued, but only for a few months. After Mr. Srinivasa Rao’s tenure ended, his succesor R.K. Roja directed the officials to take up the project works forward.

A Vizag-based company, Gill Marines, is believed to have bought the ship for ₹1.25 crore from the insurer PNI Club (North of England). To make the project possible, the tourism department had to facilitate a road and other clearances from its end.