Bhubaneswar, Oct 27 : The vessel MV Black Rose may have invited media attention for all the wrong reasons, but it is now attracting tourists from different parts of Orissa. Many are coming to Paradip coast to have a peek at the ship that sank last month.

"We have been getting news about the Black Rose from newspapers and TV since last month. Since we had come to see some tourist places we decided to include Paradip as one of our destinations as we want to see the ship. It looks like a floating mound from the Paradip coast," said Shyamsundar Sahoo, who had come with his family from Angul district in Orissa, to see the ship.    

On Sunday some elderly men from Junei village from Konark area of Puri district rode their bicycles for quite some distance to Paradip to see the sunken ship.    

"We were on a pilgrimage on our bicycles with our bag and baggage. Since we had come to visit some temples in the Jagatsinghpur district, we made it a point to see the sunken Black Rose," said Khetrabasi Bhola who rode about 150 km with three of his companions.    

The vessel, sailing under a Mongolian flag, was carrying about 25,000 tonnes of iron ore fines and 975 tonnes of furnace oil. It capsized in the Bay of Bengal Sep 9, five km off the Paradip coast within Indian territorial waters.(IANS)