MUMBAI, January 16: Mumbai is all set to lose one of its most popular landmarks. With a developer pleading his inability to convert the stranded ship Zhen Don off Bandra into a multi-crore floatel, the ship will now be cut up and sold as scrap on the rocks within six months.Raj Pradhan of Rashmi Developments bought the wreck from its Singapore-based owners Samson Ship Management in 1996 for 450,000 US dollars. He paid the first instalment of around 250,000 dollars and agreed to pay the remainder to obtain ownership of the vessel. Late last year, the owners filed a case for possession of the vessel in the HC after Pradhan failed to pay up the 200,000 US dollars he owed them. He was also taken to court by the Bandra West Residents Association who had opposed the floatel project on the grounds that it would congest and pollute the area.As per an order passed by Justice R M Lodha on Thursday on the latter case, Pradhan has been asked to commence salvaging and cutting the ship within one month. The cutting operation will have to be completed and the entire wreck removed before the onset of the monsoon on June 18 this year.However, there's a Catch-22 situation here. Pradhan cannot begin breaking up the ship unless he repays the ship owners their dues. In the other case concerning the ship's owners, Pradhan has been given until January 19 to deposit the first instalment of their dues. He has to complete the entire payment schedule by mid-February, failing which the owners will reposess the ship. ``Give us the money and we'll get out of here is what the owners have been telling Pradhan all along,'' one of the Mumbai-based agents of the owners said. He stated that the owners would have no objection to Pradhan cutting up the ship, provided he paid them their dues. ``Otherwise all his previous advance amount will be forfeited once the owners reposess the ship.''``I worked very hard on this project for the last one year,'' stated a dejected Pradhan. Withour referring to the issue of pending dues, he attributed his decision to the lengthy time taken for central government clearance. ``We were told that governmental clearance in the current political scenario would take very long,'' he added. He said the entire cutting and scrapping operation would take at least a year, since facilities normally available at a scrapyard were unavailable on the rocks off Bandra.As per the consent terms filed on Thursday, the court has granted Pradhan permission to construct a temporary pathway of stones. He also been asked to remove the sludge from the vessel before March 31 this year.
