City engineer goes missing in ship blast

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The half finished concrete structure at Bhagavathy Nagar near Kowdiar here is waiting for the word, whether the man whose sweat and blood behind its rise would ever return. The two-storeyed building ‘Kairali’ was where Manikuttan, the 31-year-old engineer, who is suspected to have died a few days ago in a blast in a ship, lived with his parents.   Sometimes fate chooses the wrong time to play the rudest of jokes. Manikuttan was gearing up to return home after completing his six-month-long assignment with a Mumbai-based shipping company, Noha Marine, when a freak fire that erupted on board the Indo-Nigerian tanker vessel ITB Jackson Ville put his life in danger. His contract was scheduled to end on September 26, following which he could return home. His family is now painfully awaiting the news from the vessel, as to whether he is safe or not. The news has come as a shock to his parents, Bhaskaran Nair and Saraswathi Amma, who were expecting the homecoming of the youngest of their seven sons. Both of them, ailing from various age- related illness, have not been able to regain their consciousness ever since hearing the news.   However, a faint ray of hope still remained on the faces of his brothers and friends, who gathered outside his half-finished house. ‘’We have not yet received any official confirmation on his death from the authorities. Technically he is still missing. We are keeping our fingers crossed,’’ said Madhusoodhanan Nair, Manikuttan’s brother, who is an employee of a shipping company here.   Speaking about the confirmation from the authorities, the family alleged that they seemed to have taken the incident very lightly. ‘’The accident occurred on Sunday and we got the information only on Tuesday, that too from one of the crew members, who regained consciousness two days after the incident,’’ said Manoharan Thampi, the eldest of the brothers.  They seemed to be unaware of the accident one of their own vessels met with, when we contacted them first, added Manoharan Thampi.   Manikuttan, along with four other crew members, had gone missing after a blast occurred on board the ship on Sunday near the Bay of Lagos. The ship carried as many as 15 persons, including the captain.