Malaysian cargo ship evacuated from Odisha coast

A special tug boat from Singapore and a 15-member team from Malaysia have successfully towed the Malaysian cargo ship into deep-sea. Nearly 32,000 litres of oil were salvaged, through a 700-metre long pipe, from the ship by a team from Bangladesh.

Puri (Odisha): A Malaysian cargo ship which had been stranded near Odisha's Chilika Lake since August 7 was finally towed into deep-sea on Sunday night.

A special tug boat from Singapore and a 15-member team from Malaysia successfully towed the stranded ship into the deep sea after several hours of effort, a district official said.

The cargo ship which was on its way to Visakhapatnam had drifted towards the Odisha coast due to technical glitch.

The ship, with 10 crew members, had anchored near Rajhans beach, close to the Chilika lake.

The Indian Coast Guard had expressed fear of oil leakage from the ship, following which Odisha government on August 28 began the process of extracting oil from the ship.

Nearly 32,000 litres of oil were salvaged, through a 700-metre long pipe, from the ship by a team from Bangladesh.