Contempt notice over access road to Zhen Don

A report submitted by the Coast Guard, who had carried out a joint inspection of the ship along with representatives of the Bandra (West) Residents Association on Monday, submitted its report to the court today.

The report said there were around 248 tonnes of various material including oil, sludge, diesel, lube oil and water in the 50-odd tanks on board the ship.

The judge has given the developers five months – until January 31 next year – to remove the sludge and until February 28 to demolish the temporary access pathway.

The developer Raj Pradhan has been instructed to deposit Rs 15 lakh with the court as a guarantee. The next hearing of the case is slated for August 26.

Responding to an ad interim application in the notice of motion which the residents took out in their writ petition last week, Justice Lodha had directed the Coast Guard and the citizens group to jointly inspect the ship to ascertain the quantity of sludge remaining and the time frame for its removal.

On July 3, the developer had obtained permission of constructing a temporary access pathway to the stranded ship to manually remove the sludge in its holds.

While Pradhan was given permission to construct a 6-feet wide road, the collector submitted before the court that the road was in fact 24-feet wide.Rashmi Builders want to develop the stranded ship into a floating restaurant. However, Bandra (West) Residents Association is opposed to the `’environment unfriendly `’ idea.