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.
Cyclone Tauktae: 49 still missing, high-level committee to probe how ONGC vessel was stranded
Cyclone Tauktae: 49 still missing, high-level committee to probe how ONGC vessel was stranded
A high-level committee has been set up by the petroleum ministry to investigate the events that led to an ONGC vessel getting stranded during Cyclone Tauktae on May 17. With 49 people still missing, the Indian Navy’s search and rescue operations are underway.
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UPDATED: May 19, 2021 22:10 IST
The Indian Navy’s search and rescue (SAR) operations continued for the third day on Wednesday. (Photo: Manjit Negi and Abhishek Bhalla / India Today)
After Barge P-305 sank 35 miles off Mumbai on May 17 as Cyclone Tauktae made its way across the western coast, the union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has set up a three-member panel to investigate the events that led to the vessel getting stranded.
The sunken barge was working at the Heera oil rig part of the Bombay High oil rigs, 70 km south-west of Mumbai. It was a part of six separate vessels which had been adrift at sea since Monday following the Cyclone Tauktae. All were connected with oil-drilling work or new projects at the Bombay High. The others are safe.
Also the number of persons on board the ill-fated barge ‘P305’ has been down revised from the 273 announced earlier to 261, the latest number. The Navy had initially said 273 were on board the barge and this was based on the first SOS message. The Oil and Natural Gas Commission clarified that the number on board the barge was 261. The Navy has confirmed the figure and now it has been revised to 261 on board before the accident.
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.