20 May 2021 2:14 GMT Updated 20 May 2021 7:10 GMT in London
India s Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has launched a high-level investigation into the barge sinking offshore India that is now confirmed to have claimed at least 22 lives with more than 50 other personnel still unaccounted for.
Disaster struck on Monday when Cyclone Tauktee barrelled across the Arabian Sea and slammed into Oil & Natural Gas Corporation’s Mumbai High asset. Three Afcons’ barges, including Papaa 305 – which subsequently capsized and sank – and an ONGC drillship bore the brunt of the worst cyclone to hit the region in more than 20 years.
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Inadequate advance notice and miscalculations of cyclone Tauktae s ferocity and its path may have contributed to a false belief that oilfield operations in the Arabian Sea need not be paused, said top sources close to ONGC whose vessels with 700 onboard were struck by the storm. A drillship of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and three barges of private contractor Afcons working on the state-owned firm s oilfield went adrift after their anchors gave away in the storm on Monday night. A massive day-night operation by the Indian Navy, Coast Guards and ONGC vessels helped save those on the drillship and two barges, but only 186 out of 261 onboard accommodation barge Pappa 305 could be rescued. 37 persons are confirmed dead so far, while the remaining 38 are still missing.
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Mumbai, May 20
With 38 people on board a barge that sank in the Arabian Sea four days ago still missing, Indian Navy ships worked through the night, using searchlights to trace any movement in the pitch dark waters, as hopes of finding more survivors began to recede on Thursday.
The Navy on Thursday morning launched a fresh aerial search and rescue mission, deploying helicopters to scour the waters off Mumbai coast, where the accommodation barge P305 went adrift in Cyclone Tauktae fury before it sank Monday.
As many as 37 personnel on board the barge are dead and 38 still missing, after Navy personnel, battling extreme weather, so far rescued 186 of the 261 people who were on board the barge P305 and two personnel from tugboat Varaprada.
New Delhi : The death toll on the barge that sank in the Arabian Sea rose to 49 with the recovery of more bodies even as the Navy and the Coast Guard searched for 37 other missing persons since the severe cyclonic storm Tauktae battered the region. Government sources said while 6,961 persons on 337 .