Eleven more bodies were recovered from the sunken Barge P305 off Mumbai coast, taking the death toll to 60.
Fifteen persons are still missing five days after the incident.
“From Barge P305, there are 186 survivors and 60 bodies have been recovered. Navy is coordinating search and rescue operations with ships and aircraft for the missing,” the Navy said on Friday. An underwater search is planned by the Navy’s Survey ship for locating wrecks of Barge P305 and Tug Varaprada using specialised teams and equipment, the Navy added.
Accommodation Barge P305 with 261 persons on board sank 35 nautical miles off Mumbai on May 17 in cyclone Tauktae. Three construction barges of Afcons Infrastructure working on a project of Oil and Natural gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and one drilling rig of the ONGC deployed for exploration in Bombay High off the coast of Mumbai were hit by the cyclone.
On the other vessels rescued in the area, the Navy said that drill ship Sagar Bhushan and Support Station-3 arrived in Mumbai harbour on Thursday under tow. Support Station 3 is at Indira Dock, Mumbai Port Trust while Sagar Bhushan entered the port on Friday, the Navy added..
Preventive measures
With a low pressure area likely to form over the North Andaman Sea and adjoining East Central Bay of Bengal around Saturday and very likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm, the Coast Guard has initiated extensive pre-emptive measures on Eastern coast and has put ships and aircraft on high alert. The system will be named 'Yaas' once it develops into a cyclone, the Coast guard said.
“Coast Guard ships at Andaman and Nicobar relayed weather warning to mariners and fishermen, urging them to return to shore or take shelter in nearest Port,” the Coast Guard said.
