Lankan aid ship permitted to offload at Chennai

Authorities granted permission to ''MV Captain Ali'', also known as ''Vananga Mann'' vessel, after the ship's agent submitted documents on Thursday.

"We have received yesterday (on Friday) the documents from the agent, Imperial Shipping, requesting us to bring the ship inside for discharge of cargo. We had earlier requested them to get clearance from Navy, from Coast Guard, from immigration, customs, and police. And they brought all the clearance yesterday evening," said Subhash Kumar, acting chairman, Chennai Port Trust.

MV Captain Ali set sail in April with 884 tones of relief material in the form of medicines, dry rations and clothing, collected by the Tamil diaspora in Europe. It was denied entry at the Colombo port.

Later it sailed towards Chennai, but was kept waiting for clearance.

It is believed that the ship's cargo would be transferred into containers and sent to Colombo in the next few days, which would then be distributed through the International Committee of the Red Cross