The Indian Naval Warship Vindhyagiri settled on the sea bed at the Naval Dockyard here on Monday due to flooding in some of its compartments.
No casualties have been reported. The Defence Ministry has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Defence personnel denied the ship had sunk. “The place where the ship is berthed hardly has enough water. It is just seven metres deep. The ship touched the bottom because of flooding in some compartments. She is on the sea bed. Of course, she can be recovered,” Chief Public Relations Officer (Defence) Captain M. Nambiar told The Hindu.
A press release issued by the Ministry said that a First Information Report had been lodged at the Yellow Gate police station and the extent of damage was being ascertained.
The Ministry also denied reports of oil spill from the ship.
On Sunday, there was a collision between merchant vessel mv Nordlake and INS Vindhyagiri in the Mumbai port channel. Though the merchant vessel is not reported to have suffered much damage, some damage was reported on INS Vindhyagiri.
“Consequently, there was a fire on board and ingress of water in some compartments. The water in the compartments resulted in the ship listing to one side. There was excessive smoke caused probably due to burning of lagging (insulation material) in the ships compartment,” the press note stated.
It said that several fire tenders were pressed into service to contain the fire. “Tugs from the Naval Dockyard and Mumbai Port Trust were also deployed for fire fighting.” The fire was brought under control at 1.30 p.m. on Monday.
“The ship is presently listing to the port and has touched bottom. There is no oil spill inside the harbour, however, the Coast Guard is on standby. There is no disruption to the shipping traffic in the Channel,” it said.
