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ShareMUMBAI: You sure have read a lot about the Bermuda Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. But ever heard anything about the 'Colaba Quadrangle' close home in the Arabian Sea?
Working round-the-clock to ensure safe shipping movements across the city's eastern seafront, Mahesh Munj, a vessel traffic controller in his 40s, and his colleagues at the Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS) tower at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) know they have a challenge at hand every time a huge cargo ship approaches Colaba. The 'Colaba Quadrangle', they say, is no less a threat than the Bermuda Triangle.
Every ship, seeking safe passage through the main harbour channel between Mumbai Port Trust and JNPT, is issued strict warning not to enter a 12 square nautical mile area, located just 8 km off the Colaba shipping control tower.
Ask what is so dreadful about this quadrangle, and Munj will say peril lurks in the deep. Till date, two big ships have sunk within the 'Colaba Quadrangle', and their wreckages are yet to be recovered from the sea-bed. "With bulky wreckages of these ships -- one sunk in 1997 and another three years later --jutting upwards from the seabed, there is every chance that a ship passing through this quadrangular area might graze one of those. We have had many scares, with quite a few big ships having close shaves. So, we have marked a 4x3 square nautical miles area as danger zone," said Munj.
Asked why the wreckages were still lying their even more than 10 years after the first disaster, Munj said that it was not just difficult to retrieve those. "It is also financially not feasible," he adds.
According to Bhushan Patil, a director on the JNPT board, there has been accumulation of lots of silt along the coast, affecting the movement of ships. Several requests have been made to the Centre, but the shipping ministry has not taken any initiative. With the wreckages buried deep in the silt, it has become impossible to retrieve those.
"As the danger zone is close to the entry point in the harbour channel, it poses a grave threat to boating activities," said Munj.
