The stranded Taiwan flag carrier container vessel - YM North - was successfully refloated by four tug boats of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) in early Saturday morning, port officials said. The container ship had run aground on Friday evening outside the harbour's navigational channel after engine failure. It was pulled out at 5am at high tide, they said.
Highlighting the 14-hour-long rescue efforts, officials said: "Four tugs of KPT participated in the rescue efforts and six pilots conducted the operation to pull out the vessel." They said the ship was pulled out of the breakwater area off the outer navigational channel successfully, adding that neither the vessel nor the cargo was damaged during the operation.
"It took KPT an hour to refloat the vessel through an operation, which commenced at around 4am," they said. They said General Manager Operations Rear Admiral, Azhar Hayat, Deputy Conservator Captain Shoukat Ali, Harbour Master, Captain Shakeel Babar, Dock Master, Captain Jamaluddin, Deputy Harbour Master, Captain Asif Tony and six pilots carried out the operation. After the ship was pulled out, it docked safely at berths 26 and 27 of Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT) - West Wharf of Karachi port.
According to a KPT statement, the vessel's maximum capacity is 3,860 TEU containers. The vessel, it said, was carrying 1,740 containers, of which 1,553 containers were bound for Pakistan and will get offloaded at KICT berths. KPT Chairman Muhammad Aslam Hayat monitored the operation. The vessel will now sail from Karachi to Port Pipavav, which is located in Saurashtra in the Indian state Gujarat, some 152 nautical miles north-west off the Mumbai shore.
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