Genoa prepares to dismantle Concordia

(ANSA) - Genoa, July 28 - 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.