Costa Concordia 'will be refloated and removed whole'
The wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship will be re-floated and removed in its entirety rather than being cut up for scrap, a senior Italian official has said.
Costa Concordia: authorities end search for bodies on stricken cruise ship
The wrecked Costa Concordia will be refloated in its entirety Photo: AP
Nick Squires
By Nick Squires, Rome
1:41PM GMT 03 Feb 2012
Comments49 Comments
Franco Gabrielli, the head of the Civil Protection Authority, was addressing concerns on the island of Giglio that the sight of the stricken ship could adversely affect tourism this summer.
Islanders have expressed concerns that their picturesque, tiny port, will become a working shipyard for the entire summer, deterring yachtsmen, divers, snorkellers and tourists.
Mr Gabrielli said the removal of the ship would be carried out with the utmost respect for the environment, amid concern that an oil spill would devastate Giglio's crystal clear waters and marine life.
Costa Cruises, the Italian company that owns the crippled liner, will invite 10 of the world's best known salvage firms to bid for the contract to recover the vessel.
Bids must be in by early March, with the contract to be awarded by the end of that month and work to start shortly afterwards.
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By that time it is hoped that a Dutch company, Smit, will have been able to extract the 500,000 gallons of diesel and heavy oil in the liner's fuel tanks.
The salvage operation is expected to take up to 10 months, meaning that the ship will spend at least a year wedged on rocks in clear sight of Giglio's port and main settlement.
"This timeline represents the best possible outcome in a situation of this kind, although it cannot be excluded that there will be delays given the complexity of the operation," Genoa-based Costa Cruises said in a statement.
The Costa Concordia's 4,200 passengers and crew had to be evacuated after it rammed into a rocky shoal and grounded on Giglio's shore on the night of Jan 13.
The death toll so far is 17, but 15 other people are still missing and presumed to be dead, either trapped inside the hull or in the open sea.
The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, 52, is under house arrest at his home near Naples and faces charges of abandoning ship as well as multiple counts of manslaughter. He denies the allegations.
