Suez Canal Chairman Says Rejected Plan To Saw Off Stranded Ship's Bow

It was suggested that the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) have the bow of the Ever Given sawed off to dislodge it from the bank, the canal's chairman told an Italian news agency on Wednesday

CAIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th April, 2021) It was suggested that the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) have the bow of the Ever Given sawed off to dislodge it from the bank, the canal's chairman told an Italian news agency on Wednesday.

The giant container ship ran aground in the canal on March 29, with its bow wedged against the eastern bank and its stern almost touching the other. It was eventually refloated with the help of tugboats and dredgers.

"We received a lot of suggestions, including that to saw off the bow and unload containers, a move which would have cost us two to three months. We ruled them out because we wanted to end the refloating as soon as possible," Osama Rabie, the canal's chairman and managing director, told Nova.

Rabie said that shipping was back to normal. He praised the SCA's crisis management skills that allowed it to deal with the emergency "in record time without having to resort to options that might have taken too long or caused damage to the ship's hull and the cargo onboard."

The SCA is already deepening the canal in places where ships wait for their turn to navigate the waterway. The authority said earlier it might seek $1 billion in damages for having the important shipping lane chocked off for six days.