Tuesday, January 3 2006 09:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: ONGC has pressed a high-capacity crane to extract two containers from deep sea, believed to be laden with explosives which were on way to Afghanistan for the road jobs undertaken by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) there, after naval ships identified the containers off the coast of Mumbai.

The retrieval job is being done jointly by the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and the ONGC, while a core team consisting of officials of Intelligence Bureau, Customs, Mumbai Port Trust and Mumbai police, headed by Maharashtra Director General of Police, P S Pasricha is monitoring developments, sources said.

Two containers, containing nearly 100 metric tonne explosives, despatched on Honduran-registered merchant vessel 'MV Eugenia' were dumped in deep sea, reportedly after the ship met rough weather, but due to the sensitive nature of the issue in the present geo-political scenario, central agencies sounded alarm bells fearing that the explosives could land in wrong hands.

DGP Pasricha told sources that the containers have been located but since they were lying more than 30 metres deep in water, a special ONGC 37-ton crane has been pressed into service.

Sources said that while the core team is monitoring the recovery, naval ships INS Nidesh, INS Alleppey and INS Ratnagiri are assisting in the retrieval job along with naval deep-sea divers.

MV Eugenia left Mumbai port on December 23, but reports of disappearance of the two containers reached on December 29, triggering a massive search and rescue operation.