New Delhi: The death toll on the barge that sank in the Arabian Sea rose to 49 with the recovery of more bodies even as the Navy and the Coast Guard searched for 37 other missing persons since the severe cyclonic storm Tauktae battered the region.
Government sources said while 6,961 persons on 337 offshore wells, platforms and other oil and gas installations that dot the west coast stayed safe, five vessels encountered mechanical faults, putting to risk 714 personnel on board.
Three barges and an anchor handling boat, deployed by private contractor Afcons for a project it was doing for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and a drillship of a state-owned firm, lost anchors and drifted away.
While 440 persons on two barges and the drillship were brought to safety, barge P-305 carrying 261 personnel sank.
Out of 261, 186 were rescued and the bodies of 49 have been recovered, they said. Search for the remaining 26 is going on. Out of the 13 persons on anchor boat Varaprada, two have been rescued while the search for the remaining 11 is on.
Naval and Coast Guard vessels and aircraft scoured the waters off the west coast to look for the missing.
Sources said based on the weather warning, ONGC -- which operates the giant Mumbai High oil and gas field and other fields in the region -- activated its emergency response system and issued instructions to all installations to take action.
ONGC's installations, which include giant platforms which house hundreds of staff, wells, drillships and support vessels, took appropriate actions like staying at safe mode or moving to a safe location, they said.
A note from Afcons said all its vessels were on May 14 advised to secure their respective work locations and move to safe locations at the earliest.
The master of P-305 chose to move 200 metres away from the Heera platform where it was working and remain at the location, it said, adding this was based on his assessment that it was a safe location since the maximum predicted wind speed was only 40 Knots and his location was 120 nautical miles away from the eye of the tropical storm.
But the weather conditions deteriorated rapidly from the evening of May 16, reaching worse than predicted levels a day later.
This sudden deterioration of weather left no time at all for any further action to be taken by the master of the vessel, it said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Congress and Shiv Sena have demanded the resignation of Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant in a tweet said, "News of sinking of #ONGC barge P-305 resulting in the death of 37 workers is devastating. More than 38 ppl are still missing. This is clearly man-made tragedy as warning of imminent #TauktaeCyclone had bn given in advance.
@dpradhanbjp must resign taking moral responsibility."