After failed bid, re-tendering for MT Pavit sale this week

Beached vessel MT Pavit, which trespassed into Indian shores in July 2011, will be re-tendered this week, after the first bid failed to cross the minimum auction price. The Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB), which is inviting the bids, maintains that the vessel is in good condition and sea-worthy. The only bid that the 999-tonne tanker attracted in the last tender came from a scrap dealer.

"We have pegged the minimum auction amount at Rs 4.75 crore," said Shyamsunder Shinde, CEO, MMB. The second auction, according to Maharashtra Maritime Board, will advertise on the features of the vessel with the prospective buyers allowed to visit the vessel.

With the experts confirming its sea-worthiness and another report from Directorate General Of Shipping (DGS) maintaining the vessel's long pending sea life, the agency will now call for fresh bids. The DGS has also made an offer to its salvers Great Offshore Agency to join in the bid.

Interestingly, the auction proceeds will help towards expenditure incurred to salvage the vessel from the period it was found stranded on Mumbai shores in July 2011, after it was abandoned by its Dubai-based owners Pavit Shipping and Prime Tankers LLC. In May this year, when it went under hammer, the 78-m-vessel, currently beached at Dabhol minor port saw bids from a scrap dealer whose quotation was "way below the mark," said Shinde.

Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) had claimed the cost for use of Emergency Towing Vessel (ETW) and Great Offshore Salvers for the entire towing, salvage and beaching exercise, which together stands at Rs 4 crore. Coast Guard and ports used for berthing the vessel have incurred additional expenditure. Over the months, the Maritime Board has been paying a monthly security cost of Rs 25,000 to ensure the vessel is secure. "We have made an offer to Great Offshore Agency to buy the vessel. They are a shipping company and can benefit from the vessel," Shinde adds.

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