Hopes of finding more survivors of the Cyclone Tauktae fury have receded, an official said.
The Navy and the Coast Guard continued the search for the nine missing personnel from the barge and 11 from Varaprada even as hopes of finding more survivors of the Cyclone Tauktae fury receded, an official said.
Afcons Infrastructure, whose chartered barge P305 with 261 personnel at the Bombay High offshore oilfield was wrecked by cyclonic storm Tauktae earlier this week, on Thursday said the weather deteriorated rapidly and reached levels far worse than forecasts.
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.
There is no word yet on the progress of rescue operations for the accommodation barge SS-3 and the Sagar Bhushan oil rig.
Faced with high-speed wind and swelling sea, the ill-fated barge Pappa-305, with 261 crew onboard, lost anchors and smashed into an unmanned platform before sinking in the Arabian Sea after its captain ignored weather warnings and chose not to move the vessel away from the path of severe cyclonic storm Tauktae, a survivor recounted.
Battling tidal waves as high as 10 metres and strong winds while trying to stay afloat in the cyclone-hit rough Arabian Sea for almost 12 hours, workmen rescued from a sinking barge near Mumbai narrated their horrifying experience in their quest for survival.
The death toll on barge P305 that sank in the Arabian Sea four days ago rose to 49 on Thursday with the recovery of more bodies even as the Navy and the Coast Guard continued the search for the 26 personnel missing from the barge and 11 from anchor boat Varaprada, as hopes of finding more survivors of the Cyclone Tauktae fury receded.
Rakesh Ballav, the captain of the barge, and others have been named in the FIR, a Mumbai Police spokesperson said.
Afcons Infrastructure, whose chartered barge had sunk in the Arabian Sea due to a cyclone this week leaving at least 51 people dead, on Friday said it will provide compensation ranging from Rs 35-75 lakh to the families of the deceased personnel.
It looks unlikely that a proper plan was in place or else the deaths could have been averted, reports Jyoti Mukul.
With 40 officers and 260 men, INS Kochi sailed into the eye of a cyclonic storm and rescued 125 men who had jumped into the sea from a sinking barge. It was one of the Indian Navy's greatest rescue operations.
Gale-force winds, heavy rainfall and high tidal waves swept the coastal belts of Maharashtra and Goa as Cyclone Tauktae hurtled northwards towards Gujarat.
Tropical storm 'Tauktae' (pronounced as Tau'Te) which had intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm, lies close to the Gujarat coast, the India Meteorological Department said. "The landfall process has started and will continue during next two hours," the IMD said.
'The emotions I saw in the eyes of the survivors when we pulled them out of the sea into our helicopter will remain with me for the rest of my life.'
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