After a number of people venturing close to grounded ship MV Wisdom nearly drowned, lifeguards from the Juhu Beach Lifeguards Association cordoned off the area within a 20-ft radius of the ship on Wednesday.
Naville David, president, Juhu Beach Lifeguards Association, said: “We have deployed around 20 lifeguards because of the number of people visiting the beach to see the ship. It becomes difficult to control the crowd, as people do not heed warnings against venturing close to the vessel. Heavy currents have caused a sharp dip in the level of sand close to the ship, and this may lead to drowning incidents.”
Local stall owners said that the police and BMC lifeguards are unable to control the heavy crowd at the beach. However, police officials said they have taken adequate measures to prevent untoward incidents.
Madhukar Chaudhary, senior police inspector, Santa Cruz police station, said: “We have deployed 15 policemen, who are present at the spot in shifts and try controlling the crowd with the help of the BMC and flood relief lifeguards. Also, the area near the ship has been cordoned off.”
The civic body has also sprung into action post the rise in the number of people flocking to the beach to see the grounded vessel. In the last one week, there has been one death and 14 rescue incidents in the area. “Security has been enhanced at the beach. Lifeguards and officials of the flood rescue unit have been deployed,” said Manisha Mhaiskar, additional municipal commissioner.
However, locals and a team of voluntary lifeguards manning the beach said that they have not seen any BMC lifeguard on the beach. “The BMC lifeguards are nowhere to be seen whenever some drowning incident happens. The same applies to the flood rescue unit,” said David.
Civic officials refuted the allegations. “The BMC lifeguards and the flood rescue team are always on their toes. With the ship stalled at the coast, they are manning the beach vigilantly,” said a senior civic official.
Singapore-based salvage experts from a firm called SMIT will try to re-float the ship on July 3.
