The Royal Vasista capsised in the river in full spate, claiming around 51 lives.
HYDERABAD: In the country’s biggest salvage operation to bring out a boat out from about 300 feet deep in River Godavari, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is gearing up for this task by this weekend. The tourist boat, the Royal Vasista, capsised in the river in full spate near Devipatnam in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh on 15 September, claiming around 51 lives.
As many as 26 persons were saved by nearby fishermen and villagers on the spot and 35 bodies were recovered in the last six days. The bodies of the remaining people are believed to have been trapped beneath the boat which is now at the bottom of the river, under around 300 feet, as per Sonar detection methods used by the NDRF and Indian Navy.
The tragedy that shook the nation prompted the Centre and the state to pool their energies to finish the salvage operation at the earliest.
Around 300 personnel of NDRF, state disaster management authority, Navy, Uttarakhand’s Disaster Rescue Force, AP fire and ONGC are at the mishap site, working round-the-clock to search for bodies of victims as well as trying to pull out the boat from the river. As the entire area is in grip of heavy rains since Monday, their task turned tougher. However, the experts from the NDRF and Uttarakhand’s rescue teams are yet to find a way to pull out the two-storied boat which can accommodate up to 90 people.
The exact location of the point where the boat capsized is a curvaceous spot in a narrow path of river between two tall hills, called Papi Kondalu. Usually, this boat ride of Papi Kondalu is advised in December-January, when there are no floods.
But, this time, the river witnessed heavy floods, because of the incessant rains upstream in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh since August first week. On the day of the tragedy, the river discharged a flood of 5 lakh cusecs of water at nearby Dowleswaram barrage, before entering in Bay of Bengal, 70 km downstream. This amount of flood is unsafe for any boat ride in the river. However, the boat owners ventured tours, irrespective of warnings from the police and the irrigation officials. On 15 September, the boat carried 86 passengers against its stipulated capacity of 40 to 45. Moreover, the Royal Vasista was run on a single engine as against the norm of twin engines for any big boat.
People who survived the tragedy told the officials that the boat couldn’t escape a whirlpool on the corner of a curve and got sucked into it as it tilted to a side when the panicked passengers ran to a corner. Within minutes, the boat capsised and there was no time to use life-jackets kept on the decks. “Only a few of us used them,” said Janaki Rama Rao, a survivor from a Rajahmundry hospital.
Nearby fishermen who heard cries of passengers of sinking boat jumped into waters and could save a few of them by pulling them out with rubber tubes and ropes. But a majority of them got drowned along with the marooned boat.
The rescue teams could locate another 13 bodies in the last five days, but another 17 are suspected to be trapped in the debris of boat.
Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Party president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu accused the YSR Congress government of being inefficient to salvage the boat even after five days of the tragedy. Andhra Tourism Minister Avanthi Srinivas, however, defended the rescue operations, saying that the weather was not favorable to pull out the boat.
The tourism minister himself is now embroiled in a controversy with former MP and YSR Congress leader G.V. Harsha Kumar accusing him of taking bribes from the boat owner for granting permit, though it was not fit to carry tourists. “The minister is behind the delay in salvaging the boat from the river as it would reveal more dead bodies than the projected figure of 86 or so,” said Harsha Kumar.
The state government has set up an official committee headed by the irrigation principal secretary to find out the reasons for the boat tragedy. Chief Minister Jagan had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to kin of deceased.