Of these, 23 cruise ships anchored to take shelter from the storm at Tuan Chau International Cruise Port sank on September 7 but have not been salvaged yet.
Sharing with Lao Dong, ship owners said that seeing billions of dong worth of assets submerged in water for a long time is very painful, but salvage units mainly in Hai Phong are very busy because during storm No. 3, many ships and water transport vehicles were in trouble.
Some salvage units only quote prices of about 30 - 40 million VND/ship but then leave it there because they can't handle the work.
Mr. Tran Van Hong - Head of the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association - said that the association is still contacting some units in Hai Phong to help salvage the tourist boats at Tuan Chau International Passenger Port. Currently, a team is salvaging the sunken Ha Long Diamond ship in the Ha Long Shipyard area, when finished, they will move on to salvage the boats at Tuan Chau International Passenger Port.
That means the other sunken ships will have to wait, and it is expected to be a long time.
Of the 25 tourist boats sunk by storm No. 3, only two boats outside Tuan Chau Port have been and are being salvaged. Minh Phat 36, owned by Mr. Nguyen Van Chung, sank at the Tra Bau storm shelter in Cat Ba and was hired to be salvaged a few days ago.
Mr. Chung said that he had to wait for the salvage companies for a long time, so he hired two local boats to tow the ship from Tra Bau to a ship repair workshop in Ha Khau ward, Ha Long city. However, when he got there, the ship was still underwater because the workshop had no electricity and was still devastated after the storm. Another thing Mr. Chung was worried about was that because he had to rely on local boats to salvage the ship, he had no invoice, making it difficult to pay the insurance later.
It is estimated that repairing the hull of a sightseeing cruise ship costs between VND500 million and VND1 billion, not including the repair of machinery. Some ships that cannot be restored must be completely closed. Meanwhile, the cost to repair an overnight cruise ship is up to billions of VND.
At the meeting to discuss solutions to overcome the consequences of storm No. 3 and gradually restore tourism activities this morning (September 13), Mr. Cao Tuong Huy - Chairman of Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee - affirmed that he will direct to immediately remove difficulties of tourism businesses.
The Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province assigned the Department of Transport to support the salvage of the sunken tourist boat immediately, to ensure stable and safe transportation operations.
To accompany businesses, Quang Ninh will immediately propose to the Government policies on banking, including debt rescheduling, debt extension, debt deferral, loan interest rate reduction, new loans for damaged businesses; propose to reduce electricity prices, taxes, insurance, etc.
