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An Italian port has beaten off foreign
competition to scrap the hulk of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that sank off
the Tuscan coast in 2012, leaving 32 dead.
"I can confirm that... the dismantling of the ship will take place in an Italian
port," Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said Friday.
Several ports had been bidding to win the contract to dismantle the wrecked
ship, including ports in Britain, France, Norway and Turkey.
Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper reported that the ship would be scrapped in
Genoa, though Lupi said the final decision was still to be taken on which of
several possible Italian ports would get the bid.
According to Il Sole 24 Ore, the ship's owners have chosen a consortium
consisting of oil service company Saipem and Genoa-based companies Mariotti and
San Giorgio.
It added that Costa Cruises, Europe's biggest cruise operator, had decided to
begin the delicate operation to re-float the vessel on July 20. The
stricken ship would then be towed 280 kilometres (170 miles) to Genoa.
The ship was hoisted upright from its watery grave in September in the
biggest-ever salvage operation of its kind, during which the remains of one of
two missing victims were discovered.
Costa has already spent 1.1 billion euros ($1.5 billion, £890 million) on the
salvage operation and scrapping the wreck in Genoa is likely to cost in the
region of 100 million euros according to Italian media reports.
The trial of the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, for manslaughter, causing
a shipwreck and abandoning the vessel before all its passengers had been
evacuated, started in July last year. |
