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

"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.

The agency has also offered to deduct the debt from the purchase amount to the salvers but it hasn't got any response yet.

Meanwhile, the nodal authority DGS is expected to keep a watch on the auction. According to officials, if all the options exhaust and it fails to find a worthy bidder, the directorate will write to the international maritime body and get the other vessels of Dubai-based Pavit Shipping and Prime Tankers LLC berthed.

The ship had, over the last 11 months, posed security and maritime concerns after three naval agencies failed to intercept it as it drifted unmanned into Mumbai's shores. The vessel was first abandoned mid-sea off Oman by a 13-member crew following a water ingress in the engine room.

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