India’s merchant ship stuck at China’s port since June; crew seeks help
| Date :10-Nov-2020 |
By Ashoke Raj :
NEW DELHI,
Merchant ship ‘Jag Anand’ is stuck at China’s northern ‘Jingtank’ port. Ship is loaded with around 1.70 lakh tonnes of Australian coal. Chinese port administration is not allowing to unload cargo.
INDIAN merchant ship ‘Jag Anand’, belonging to a Mumbai-based company Great Eastern Shipping Limited, is stuck at China’s northern ‘Jingtank’ port since June and crew members are seeking help to return home. Twenty-three Indian crew members are stuck on the ship and living in unpleasant conditions. Many crew members are suffering from health issues and running short of medicines with each passing day.
The crew of the ship contacted ANI and gave a brief detail of their current situation on the condition of anonymity. “We boarded the ship in January. Currently, we are loaded with around 1.70 lakh tonnes of Australian coal. This ship was chartered by a private entity. We left from Australia in May and arrived at the Jingtang port in China by June 13 and for five months we are stuck here at the Chinese port with no updates,” a crew member from the Jag Anand ship told ANI over the phone. “We are 23 Indian crew members on board and living in a very unpleasant situation.
We want to return to our homeland. Chinese port administration is not allowing us to unload our cargo here and they are not giving a reason either. We informed our company about the situation and they are trying to set up communication through diplomatic channels,” he added. Jag Anand merchant ship comes under Mumbai-based Great Eastern Shipping Limited and the company’s senior official has informed to Director General (DG) Shipping office to take the matter to the Chinese counterpart.
“The company is doing all the possible efforts to sort the matter at the earliest, we have raised the matter with DG, Shipping and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) too,” an official from the Shipping Company told ANI.