Salvage workers on Monday are set
to start work on the preparations for the dismantling of the
Costa Concordia after the ship arrived in Genoa at the end of
its final voyage on Sunday.
The 114,500-tonne liner completed a 330km, four-day trip
from the Tuscan island of Giglio, where it capsized after
crashing into rocks in January 2012 in a disaster in which 32
people died.
Another person, a Spanish diver, died while working on the
salvage operation in January.
It was possible to tow the ship away after an unprecedented
operation in which it was refloated this month, thanks to huge
metal boxes filled with air attached to it, following last
year's parbuckling that set it upright.
"This isn't a day for a show, but it's a mark of gratitude
for getting something done which everyone said would be
impossible," Premier Matteo Renzi said after the ship arrived in
Genoa.
"We had a terrible chapter to close, but Italy isn't a
country destined for the scrap heap... It was an achievement,
but not a happy ending".
On Monday Salvage workers will start by fixing more panels
to secure the ship and set up runways to access it.
Experts will also start devising the plan to search for the
body of the one victim of the disaster that has not yet been
recovered.
Costa Cruises said the overall salvage operation will cost
1.5 billion euros.
Former Concordia captain Francesco Schettino is on trial
in the Tuscan city of Grosseto on charges of multiple homicide,
causing a shipwreck by sailing too close to shore to "salute"
Giglio, and abandoning the ship before it was evacuated.
Schettino is the only person on trial after four crew
members and a Costa Cruises official were sentenced to terms of
up to 34 months in prison following plea bargains.
Costa Cruises avoided criminal prosecution by agreeing to
pay a one-million-euro fine, but victims are seeking
compensation in civil courts.
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