Source:
PTI
Mumbai: As many as 26 personnel on board accommodation barge P305 that went adrift in Cyclone Tauktae fury before sinking in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai coast are dead and 49 are still missing, as the Navy continued search and rescue operations through the night, an official said. The Navy said its personnel, battling extreme weather, have so far rescued 186 of the 261 people who were onboard barge P305 and also two from tugboat Varaprada.
So far 26 bodies have been recovered and 49 people who were on the barge P305 which sank on Monday are missing.
The Navy had so far maintained that there were 273 persons on board the barge but an official on Wednesday evening said that the company which operated it has informed that there were 261 personnel on board the ill-fated barge. The Navy s Search and Rescue (SAR) operations off Mumbai and Gujarat entered its third day today. Naval ships and aircraft are presently undertaking SAR of the missing crew members of Accommodation
A photo released by the Indian Navy shows stranded workers from a barge being airlifted by a Seaking helicopter during an evacuation operation in the Arabian sea. (AFP)
MUMBAI: As many as 26 personnel on board accommodation barge P305 that went adrift in cyclone Tauktae fury before sinking in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai coast are dead and 49 are still missing, as the navy continued search and rescue operations through the night, an official said on Wednesday.
The navy said its personnel, battling extreme weather, have so far rescued 186 of the 261 people who were onboard barge P305 and also two from tugboat Varaprada. Chances of finding more survivors are looking bleak, an official said.
But the company did not inform about it, he said.
Bandgar said before they got know about his rescue, his family members kept crying till he called them to inform that he was safe, he said, adding his kin were coming to Mumbai to see him.
Meanwhile, the oil ministry on Wednesday constituted a high-level committee to enquire into the sequence of events leading to the stranding of three vessels of a contractor of ONGC in cyclone Tauktae .
Three barges of Afcons, a contractor working on ONGC fields off the west coast with more than 600 people on board, were stranded in offshore areas during the severe cyclone.
As many as 26 personnel on board accommodation barge P305 that went adrift in Cyclone Tauktae fury before sinking in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai coast are dead and 49 are still missing, as the Navy continued search and rescue operations through the night, an official said on Wednesday. The Navy said its personnel, battling extreme weather, have so far rescued 186 of the 261 people who were onboard barge P305 and also two from tugboat Varaprada. Chances of finding more survivors are looking bleak, an official said. Altogether 26 bodies have been recovered so far and 49 people who were on the barge P305 which sank on Monday are missing, the official said.