PHUKET: A floating crane is due to arrive from Singapore on Friday to take over the salvage of the tour boat Phoenix, which sank in July and 47 Chinese tourists drowned.
The arrival of the Singapore team follows the failure of locally hired Spitz Tech Co Ltd to complete the salvage.
Spitz Tech said it had encountered too many problems in trying to refloat the 29-metre vessel, including the death of a member of the team .
Nat Jabjai, deputy director-general of the Marine Department, confirmed on Thursday a Singapore company had been hired to raise the Phoenix.
A floating crane was due in Phuket on Friday. Singaporean divers were examining the sunken boat and the condition of the seabed on Thursday, so the crane could move into position as soon as it arrived.
The wreck would be lifted to the surface and the water pumped out of it. It would then be taken to Ratanachai dockyard in Tha Chin Canal, Muang district. He hoped that the salvage would be completed within 15 days.
"If the Phoenix is salvaged, everything will be clear. I hope that tourism will recover" from the tragedy, Mr Nat said. Authorities were waiting to examine the wreck to determine why it sank.
He estimated the cost of the salvage by the Singaporean team at 40 million baht.
Phuket governor Pakapong Thawipat on Thursday named the new salvage contractor as Seaquest Marine. He said the 1,200-tonne, 100-metre-long floating crane was accompanied by a 34-metre-long tugboat.
The Phoenix capsized and sank in 45 metres of water during a storm off Phuket on July 5 and 47 Chinese tourists drowned. The boat operator had apparently ignored weather warnings. Chinese arrivals in Thailand have plunged since.