Container ship X-Press Godavari is being escorted to the Kolkata port by an Indian Coast Guard vessel. This comes after an overnight firefighting effort, to douse a flame on a container that the ship was carrying.
The fire was first reported on Monday morning, following which the Indian Coast Guard had despatched assets to the location. The container ship X-Press Godavari was in the anchorage off Sandheads, which is over a 100kms away from the Haldia port in West Bengal. Initially, three Coast Guard vessels had reached the spot and carried out firefighting operations, while a Dornier aircraft was assessing the situation.
By Monday evening, a fourth Coast Guard vessel had joined the action and had successfully doused the blaze. Later, they undertook boundary cooling operations to prevent re-ignition. Boundary cooling is carried out to lower the temperature in the…