Paradip lighthouse. Telegraph picture

Paradip, Dec. 17: Sailors at sea groped in the dark on Thursday night as the Paradip lighthouse stopped functioning. This was not the first time. On August 26, there was complete disruption of the light ray signal from the all-important lighthouse.

Mariners and navigators were having a tough time with the visual light signal from Paradip lighthouse continuing to play hide and seek for the past three months, endangering the safety of people out at sea.

“Crews of small fishing vessels, both mechanised and country ones, are experiencing a harrowing ordeal. Almost for a week, the visual ray is being hit by periodic breakdown. We have received reports of crews in fishing vessels getting panicky,” said Narayan Haldar, president of Orissa Traditional Marine Fishermen Association.

“Of late, the visual signal emanating from the high-power beam installed atop the lighthouse has become erratic. The light goes off at times. It is being restored on a war-footing basis,” said Paradip lighthouse assistant engineer Premananda Rout.

“We were on a small mechanised fishing vessel and were fishing about two nautical miles off the Paradip coast when the light signal from the lighthouse went off on Thursday night. The disruption of the light lasted for the entire night. But we were panicky since we sailed along directionless at midsea. We sailed to safety only after the sunrise,” Y. Gundurao, a traditional marine fisherman from near Paradip said.

“We would keep vigil on the visual signal on Friday night to ensure that the incident does not happen again,” said Rout.

The lighting beam system installed at the lighthouse near the Paradip port trust is an outdated one. Being operated by battery, it’s frequently experiences technical snags. There is a big question mark on its dependability, say mariners.

The periodic breakdown did not pose much problem for mariners as the “false point” light at Batighar in Kendrapara district is in the neighbourhood of Paradip coastal territory. With help of the visual ray signal from false point lighthouse, the navigators might not have faced any difficulty in finding the longitudinal and latitudinal location of their vessels, Rout said.

“Besides, the Paradip lighthouse is armed with the latest differential global positioning system and other gadgets. The navigators in ships and deepsea vessels having satellite connectivity and linkage, received radio signals constantly transmitted from our side,” the official said.

“There is need to upgrade and refurbish the visual signal system at the Paradip lighthouse. The visual signal system has undergone major revamp in the adjoining false point lighthouse. The eastern zone directorate of lighthouses is being apprised of the technical hitch,” said a lighthouse engineer.

Paradip coast guard commandant Saroj Kumar Sahu said: “Our ships have not reported visual signal going out from the lighthouse. However, coast guard ships are equipped with gadgets to handle such eventuality.”