The death toll from the barge P305, which sunk during Cyclone Tauktae’s fury, climbed to 70 on Sunday, the Navy said, adding that the search for 16 more people missing from the barge and tugboat Varaprada continues.
An official said that if it is verified that the 14 bodies discovered along the Maharashtra and Gujarat coasts in the last few days are those of the barge and tugboat crew, the number of those missing may be drastically reduced.
“Those found ashore are yet to be identified,” the official said. While eight bodies were recovered on Raigad coast in Maharashtra, six were found on Valsad coast in Gujarat.
The wreckage of the P305 was discovered by Navy divers on Saturday. The barge sank on Monday, with 261 people on board. Though 70 people have died and 186 have been saved so far, five people have yet to be found.
Eleven of the thirteen crew members on board the tugboat Varaprada, which was also stranded due to the cyclonic storm, have yet to be found. So far, two people have been rescued on Varaprada.
After a thorough search using sophisticated side scan sonar, INS Makar discovered Barge P305 on the seabed.
According to the official, the search for the missing staff will continue through the night. Search and rescue (SAR) efforts were also bolstered by the Navy’s deployment of specialised dive teams.
Although all 440 people on board the barges Gal Constructor and Support Station 3 (SS-3) as well as the drillship Sagar Bhushan were recently taken ashore to secure, Naval and Coast Guard vessels and aircraft scoured the waters off the Mumbai coast on Sunday as the search and rescue operations entered their seventh day.
