Lucky7 casino unlucky? Grounded off Miramar, danger of oil spill !

Anchor: The sixth controversial casino grounded hardly 100 metres away from the Miramar beach is causing a major danger of oil spill. The casino vessel Lucky7 was grounded on Saturday night on a sand bar.

Floating it may not be possible for the next 15 days due to high tide problem. And it contains almost 12 thousand litres of diesel.

The Lucky7 casino vessel owned by Delhi-based World Wide Resorts may prove to be unlucky for Goa’s tourism if the disaster takes place.

It got grounded on Saturday night while towing it in river Mandovi by using two tugs from the front and behind. The high tide of 2 metres could not help and it got grounded on the sand bar.

Four crew members out of 17 got injured while towing it, but no medical help could reach them due to low tide. They were rescued by the Coast Guard early Sunday morning, using helicopter and divers.

They were later sent to a private hospital and discharged after treatment. 

According to our reports, the BJP government forced the authorities to allow the casino vessel in river Mandovi when Captain of Ports had strongly opposed its entry in river Mandovi during monsoons.

The Captain had cautioned the government of the same danger, which has finally happened. Former Panaji MLA of Panaji, Siddharth Kunkolkar wonders how the authorities including the Captain of Ports gave permission to this entry.

But Anand Madgaokar of Madgaonkar Salvages claims that Captain is at no fault. 

Madgaokar runs a salvaging firm as well as a boat cruise and is one of the experts in Goa on such issues.

He fears that floating of the vessel may not be possible for the next 15 days and strong waves during monsoons could cause further damage to the vessel.

He rules out the possibility of ship getting sunk or tilted, but does not rule out the possibility of oil spill.

And if the oil spills out, the whole beach from Miramar to Caranzalem would become totally black.