In PIX: Another ship grounded at Juhu beach

In a repeat of the M V Wisdom episode, a much-smaller cargo vessel ran aground near the Juhu beach in north-west Mumbai on Sunday, officials said.

The Panama-flagged vessel M V Pavit, which has a capacity to hold 1,000 tonnes of cargo (as against M V Wisdom's 10,000 tonnes) ran aground near Seven Bungalows early on Sunday morning and was suspected to have drifted on from the Persian Gulf, they said.

M V Wisdom had got stuck on Juhu beach in June, and could be salvaged after about three weeks.

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"Pavit's crew was rescued somewhere in the Persian Gulf in the first week of July. Possibility of sailors being on board is less, as we did not get any SOS. It has possibly been drifting all along (since the rescue of sailors)," Director General of Shipping, S B Agnihotri, said.

An emergency towing vessel, which was hired following the M V Wisdom episode for the entire monsoon season, will be used to salvage the stuck vessel, Agnihotri said.

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"They will take a professional call...as it's a smaller vessel, towing it out will not be very difficult," he said.

However, he declined to say how long it will take. Wisdom was being towed towards the ship-breaking yard in Alang in Gujarat from Colombo, and snapping of some wires attaching it to towing ship caused it to drift.

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As in the case of Wisdom, Directorate General of Shipping feels that Pavit too is not carrying any cargo or fuel, so hopefully there would be no environmental fall-out.

Agnihotri added that officials are trying to get in touch with Pavit's Dubai-based owners.