Indian Navy ships worked through the night, using searchlights to trace any movement of stranded barges and boats in the pitch dark waters, after the onslaught of Cyclone Tauktae. With 49 people onboard, a barge P305 that went deep into the Arabian Sea four days ago had sunk. Throughout the day, hopes of finding more survivors receded. Then the terrible news came. Navy officials said that at least 49 personnel onboard barge P305 that went adrift in Cyclone Tauktae fury before sinking in the Arabian Sea are dead.

A fresh aerial search and rescue mission was launched by the Navy on Thursday morning. In this SAR operation, helicopters were deployed to scour the waters off Mumbai coast, where the accommodation barge P305 went adrift in Cyclone Tauktae’s fury before it sank on Monday.

In the SAR operations, Navy ships INS Kochi, INS Kolkata, INS Beas, INS Betwa, INS Teg, P8I maritime surveillance aircraft, Chetak, ALH and Seaking helicopters have been involved as soon as Taukte reduced in its intensity. A Navy official said that another Navy ship INS Talwar was the ‘On Scene Coordinator’ off Gujarat coast and assisted Support Station 3 (SS-3) and Drill Ship Sagar Bhushan, which were being safely towed back to Mumbai by ONGC support vessels.

The barge P305 which served as accommodation for the men working on ONGC platforms and rigs, was engineless, like most vessels in that category. Barges usually need to be towed by a tug boat.

Also Read: INS Kolkata rushed to SAR operations near Mumbai coastline in response to Cyclone Tauktae

A High Level Committee has been set up by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India to enquire into the sequence of events leading to the stranding of ONGC vessels in the cyclone “Taukte”. With more than 600 people on board, several vessels of ONGC were stranded in offshore areas during cyclone “Tauktae”. The stranding, drifting and subsequent events have led to loss of several lives.

The Committee has been constituted to inquire into the incidents. It comprises of Shri Amitabh Kumar, Director General of Shipping, Shri S.C.L. Das, Director General of Hydrocarbons, and Smt. NazliJafriShayin, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence. The Committee may co-opt any other member, and take assistance of any person it deems necessary. The Committee shall submit its report within one month.

The Terms of Reference of the Committee are:

1: To Inquire into the sequence of events leading to the stranding and drifting of these vessels, and subsequent events.

2: Whether the warnings issued by Meteorological Department and other statutory authorities were adequately considered and acted upon.

3: Whether the Standard Operating Procedures for securing the vessels and dealing with disaster management were adequately followed.

4: Lapses and gaps in the systems leading to the stranding and drifting of the vessels.
5: Recommendations to prevent recurrence of such incidents.