High-tech cranes going in flames at frequent intervals have raised serious doubts over safety of engines among various stakeholders of Visakhapatnam Port.
The Harbour Mobile Crane (HMC) built by an MNC and owned by Seapol Port Pvt. Ltd forced many to press alarm bells in the small hours of Monday when it was engulfed in fire. Incidentally, two more cranes owned by Seapol Port Pvt. Ltd and CONCOR were also caught fire in quick succession in less than a month. Incidentally, two more HMC cranes owned by the same firm went up by flames in the past.
Enquiries revealed that two HMC cranes owned by a BOT operator of Visakhapatnam Port Trust also suffered heavy damage due to fire which broke out in cranes.
A stevedoring firm official said due to frequent fire mishaps in Visakhapatnam as well as a few other incidents in other parts of the country could be due to faulty designing or operation of the engine and called for technical evaluation by domain experts.
Shifting of vessels
The incidents have led to shifting of the cargo vessels from where loading/unloading was in progress to other terminals to prevent any loss of life and property due to possible spread of flames to the merchant vessel.
Whenever such fire accidents took place, initially short-circuit is suspected to be the cause.
There is strong sentiment among the port users that thorough probe should be conducted to find out exact reason leading to breaking out of fire.
Fortunately, in all crane fire incidents, none was injured.
