Singapore ship runs aground on India’s Hooghly River after steering failure

On August 13, the container ship NAWATA BHUM crashed into the bank of the Hooghly River near Diamond Harbour in West Bengal, India. The ship had lost steering control. Strong currents then drove it into the riverbank before the crew could recover.

The Hooghly is one of India's trickier waterways for large ships. Narrow, tidal, and heavily trafficked, it forces ships on their way to and from Kolkata through channels with little room for error when something goes wrong.

NAWATA BHUM is registered in Singapore. Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority has opened a probe into the incident. That review will look at what caused the steering to fail and whether the ship's passage met the applicable safety standards.