The Navy and Coast Guard have so far rescued 317 people on board two barges that went adrift in the Arabian Sea near Mumbai hours before Cyclone Tauktae made landfall on the Gujarat coast, but 390 more remain stranded or missing from offshore facilities. The accommodation barge P305 which was servicing ONGC offshore operations has sunk, where 180 of the 273 personnel on board were rescued till late tuesday evening.
Three barges and an oil rig with 707 personnel on board went adrift on Monday. These included barge P305 with 273 persons, cargo barge GAL Constructor with 137 personnel on board, accommodation barge SS-3 with 196 personnel on board and the Sagar Bhushan oil rig with 101 personnel on board. While all the 137 people on board the cargo barge GAL Constructor were rescued, 180 of the 273 onboard P305 have been rescued so far according to officials.
Two Coast Guard Chetak helicopters operating from the Coast Guard Air station in Daman rescued personnel on board the GAL Constructor. One more Chetak helicopter was also pressed into service for the Search And Rescue operations. Navy ships INS Beas, INS Betwa and INS Teg joined INS Kochi and INS Kolkata for undertaking Search and Rescue (SAR) operations for Barge P-305, which sank 35 nautical miles from Mumbai in the Mumbai Offshore Development Area.
In another operation, a Navy Seaking helicopter was launched to rescue the crew of GAL Constructor, which ran aground north of Mumbai. It rescued 35 crew members. SAR efforts are also in progress off the coast of Gujarat for three vessels – Support Station 3, Great Ship Aditi and Drill Ship Sagar Bhushan, which are 15-20 nautical miles south-east off Gujarat coast (Pipavav).
The GAL Constructor barge was out of control for three days before the cyclonic storm led to its sinking, Avinash Aadke, a rescued worker said after being flown to Mumbai.
Proximity to land of the barge, which was anchored close to Alibaug near Mumbai and the presence of mobile connectivity resulted in help being redirected to assist other assets deep in the sea. Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Murlidhar Sadashiv Pawar said the ongoing SAR is among the most challenging search and rescue operations he has seen in the last four decades.
The main challenge in this operation is the weather itself. This is an extremely severe cyclonic storm with winds of 80-90 knots, wave heights of 6 to 8 metres, continuous rains, heavy clouding, and almost zero visibility.
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