Puri: The tugboat, MV-Cheetah, failed to remove the Malaysian cargo ship ‘Jin Hwa 32’ from Chilika Lake coast after three-hour-long effort on Sunday.
The vessel from Singapore had arrived here on Saturday to evacuate the Malaysian cargo ship, which ran aground along the shore of Chilika five weeks ago.
According to sources, the 15-member team was unable to move the ship that has tilted to one side. More than 50 per cent of the cargo ship is lying submerged under the influence of the high tide.
Meanwhile, oil from the ship has been removed on the order of the district administration.
The ill-fated ship with seven Malaysians, two Filipinos and one Indian on board, was on way to Visakhapatnam port to pick up new cargo after unloading its shipment in Bangladesh when it got caught in a storm in the Bay of Bengal and drifted towards Odisha at night and got stuck near Rajhans on Chilika shore on August 7.