CHATTOGTAM, Mar10: The government including the sate-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) became successful in bringing back the 28 surviving sailors of the Bangladeshi ship "Banglar Samriddhi" safely to the country from Rumania on Wednesday last.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Rumania had brought the sailors of the ship that was hit by missile attack of Russia in the war-torn area of Ukraine.
The ship, stranded at a port in war-torn Ukraine, came under a missile attack on March 2 last, leaving one Bangladeshi sailor dead. The victim was the third engineer of the Ship, Hadisur Rahman.
Talking to the Daily Observer, Commodore Suman Mahmud Shabbir Managing Director of BSC said, those living crew members of the ship crossed the border into Romania through Moldova on March 7 last.
He also confirmed that the body of Md Hadisur Rahman, the third engineer killed when the vessel was hit, has now been preserved in Ukraine.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Poland is working to bring the body to Bangladesh.
It took four days for the crew of the vessel, which had been stranded at the Ukrainian port of Olvia, to leave Ukraine after their vessel was attacked.
BSC MD said that the Bangladeshi Ship has now been declared abandoned and brought out the sailors giving utmost priority to the sailors' lives.
Commodore Shabbir claimed that the government had tried its best for safe return of the surviving 28 sailors.
Accordingly, all of them returned home safely, Suman said.
Pointing to the chartering of the BSC vessel, Commodore Suman said that the MV Banglar Samriddhi set off from a port in Turkey on February 21 last and arrived in Ukraine's Olvia Port. It was at the outer anchorage on February 22 and was moved to the inner anchorage on the following day before the attack by Russia.
He said, the ship was scheduled to take cement clay on board before travelling to Italy's Ravenna on February 24. On the same day, the Ukraine came under Russian attack.
So, the ship could not leave the Ukrainian port due to absence of pilots who had helped vessel to cross the navigational channel of the Ukraine port, leaving the ship to get stranded.
He further said that the BSC owned vessel is currently rented out to a shipping company of Denmark as per International law of shipping.
He said, the ship was assigned to the BSC fleet in 2018.
BSC MD disclosed that currently they owned a total of 8 vessels. Of them two lighter vessels, which carried Crude oil imported by Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation. Remaining six vessels are regularly rented out on chartering to other merchant vessels organisations inluding- local and
foreign.
Six ships were added to the fleet of BSC at cost of Taka 1,637 crore and 15.15 lakh in past fiscal of 2018-19. The names of those ships are; MT Banglar Agrajatra, MV Banglar Joyjatra, MT Banglar Agradoot, MT Banglar Agragati, MV Banglar Samriddhi, and MV Banglar Arjan. Six ships have been procured under an agreement signed with China National Machineries Import and Export Corporation (CMC). The ships included three bulk carrier and three oil tankers. The last vessel MT Banglar Agragati has been added to BSC fleet on May 25 in 2019.
Other two existing old tankers are Banglar sourav and Banglar Jyoti.
Meanwhile, the BSC has been trying to procure vessels in order to survive for the last few years. But the BSC could not proceed with their plan further due to shortage of fund.
