Massive rescue operations underway after cyclone sinks barge

New Delhi, May 18 (PTI): Navy vessels, tug boats and rescue ships were pressed into service on Tuesday to evacuate over 500 people stuck on an oil rig and barges in the high sea off the Mumbai coast after a cyclone ripped through it.
The cyclone sank a barge that had living quarters for employees working offshore, while two other construction barges lost anchors and drifted away. The three barges, which were deployed by Afcons for a contract the company had got from ONGC, had 599 workers on board when the cyclone hit, official sources said. Besides the barges, one drilling rig of ONGC, ‘Sagar Bhushan’, with 101 people on board (37 ONGC employees and 64 contractual workers), too drifted away from its location.
Indian Navy ships – INS Kochi and INS Kolkata, Coast Guard vessel ICG Samarth, tug boat of Afcons and offshore supply vessels of ONGC have been pressed into service to rescue those stranded on the barges and the rig.
Out of 261 people on Barge ‘Papaa-305’ – the worst hit by the cyclone and high sea swell – 182 have so far been rescued, they said.
Attempts are being made to trace and rescue the remaining, they said.
All the 137 persons onboard barge ‘Gal Constructor’, which runs aground about 48 nautical miles north of Mumbai’s Colaba Point, are safe and in the process of being evacuated.
Barge ‘Support Station-3’ had 201 persons and is drifting North-West but is clear of all operational installations of Mumbai High – India’s biggest oilfield. Operations to bring these persons to safety are on.
Rescue vessels including ‘ICGS Shoor’ of Coast Guard have reached ONGC’s drillship ‘Sagar Bhushan’, which lost its anchors and started drifting north, sources said.