Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, Sept 28: More than 480 passengers were stranded on MV Harshavardhana off Visakhapatnam in the Bay of Bengal since Tuesday night, when the Passenger ship was hit by a technical snag.
As per the report, the ship MV Harshavardhana was operated by the Shipping Corporation of India Limited and was on its way to Andaman Nicobar Island.
Mr. Anil of M/s. A.V.Bhanojirow, Garuda Pattabhiramayya and Co. (M/s.AVBGPR and Co.) confirmed that the ship with 480 passengers and 50 crew members on board was hit by a technical snag off the Visakhapatnam port.
The ship had left the port city of Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday at 01:35 pm and was sailing for the Andaman. Six hours later, the ship halted due to a technical snag in its generator set and since then has been stuck in the sea.
The ship was scheduled to complete its journey to Port Blair, the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in about 55 hours.
However, an official on duty assured that passengers were safe and food, water and other necessary things were provided to them by the crew.
He also added that engineers and other staff would soon fix the snag and all passengers on board the ship would reach the Visakhapatnam port.
Meanwhile, the Indian Navy has put ship INS Kuthar on standby at the eastern naval command base in the city to provide any kind of help if required.
The MV Harshavardhana had undergone major repairing at Sri Lanka and survey at Port Blair in recent past. But recently the Derik of the ship broke at Port Blair, killing on seaman and now the technical snag of Generator set, indicating how bad is the condition of the ship, despite the massive repair works.
