KARACHI: Two heavy loaded vessels near the South Asia Pakistan Terminals Limited (SAPT) collided on Monday causing loaded containers on both the ships to fall into the sea.
“Approximately 55-60 containers from the ships fell into the deep sea,” said port authorities.
According to sources, a loaded ship ‘Hapag Lloyd’ recently arrived at the SAPT deepwater port on Monday and collided with another ship. Owing to the incident, the operation at the terminal has been temporarily discontinued.
The sources said that initial investigation has revealed that the pilots of Karachi Port Trust (KPT), who took charge of the vessels, are responsible for this incident. The KPT’s pilots know deep sea routes and they tug the ships to the port. The sources further claimed that the containers are floating toward the channels made for breaking heavy waves and could possibly damage them if a proper action for removing the containers is not taken on time.
The authorities claimed that they have started an operation to remove the containers in the sea and after clearing the route of ships, the port would be reopened. In the meanwhile, an investigation into the collision has also started.
KPT officials said that their investigation team is trying to find out the reason for the accident and will submit a report after their return from the site of the collision.
The sources also informed this scribe that a similar incident had taken place two months ago because of a KPT pilot’s negligence, however, it was not reported to the media since it wasn’t as dangerous as this one.