Cyclone Tauktae: Navy, Coast Guard rescue 314 people from two barges

Battling extreme weather the Indian Navy and Coast Guard have so far rescued 314 people on board two barges that went adrift in the Arabian Sea near Mumbai hours before Cyclone Tauktae made landfall on the Gujarat coast an official said on TuesdayThree barges and an oil rig with 611 personnel on board had gone adrift on Monday These included accommodation barge P305 with 273 persons cargo barge GAL Constructor with 137 personnel on board accommodation barge SS3 with 196 personnel on board and the Sagar Bhushan oil rig with 101 personnel on board a Navy official saidView this post on InstagramA post shared by midday middayindiaWhile all the 137 people on board the cargo barge GAL Constructor have been rescued 177 of the 273 onboard P305 have been rescued so far the official saidTwo 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 SAR operations he saidAlso ReadCyclone Tauktae Personnel on board 2 barges adrift off Mumbai safe says AfconsThere is no word yet on the progress of rescue operations for the accommodation barge SS3 and the Sagar Bhushan oil rigNavy ships were deployed on Monday after receipt of a request for assistance for barge P305 adrift off Heera oil fields in Bombay high area with 273 personnel on board The oil fields are around 70 km southwest of MumbaiSixty persons on board the P305 barge were rescued till 11 pm and the remaining till Tuesday afternoon the official said adding a Navy helicopter brought three rescues to INS Shikra this morningINS Shikra formerly known as INS Kunjali is a naval air station located at Colaba in south MumbaiStaterun Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ONGC had on Monday said barge P305 with 261 personnel deployed for offshore drilling got deanchored and began drifting because of the cyclonic storm TauktaeA barge is a long flatbottomed boat either under its power or towed by another An accommodation barge is of shallow draft vessel whose keel is not far below the waterline and is used to accommodate personnel on projects where shore accommodation is not availableOffshore accommodation barges are fully autonomous and used mainly in the oil and gas industriesStaterun Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ONGC on Monday said the barges P305 and GAL Contractor were hired by them and personnel are of the contractor Afcons which is owned by the Shapporji Pallonji Group of Cyrus MistryThe barges were deployed at the Heera platform the largest of the ONGC rigs on the Bombay High the largest oil and gas assets of the national energy major and were anchored to safety ahead of the cyclone but got drifted and deanchored due to the gusty winds that have made the Arabian Sea violentWe have two barges deployed at the ONGC rigs Barge No P305 has personnel onboard and 137 people on the otherUnfortunately both were deanchored by the powerful cyclonic winds However with the help of the Navy both the barges have been steadied and all the 410 personnel are reported safe as of 1530 hours an Afcons spokesman had said on MondayThe Navy on Tuesday morning deployed the P8I long range multimission maritime patrol aircraft to join the search and rescue operations the Navy official saidGAL Constructor with 137 persons on board ran aground about 48 nautical miles north of Colaba Point he said An Emergency Towing Vessel Water Lily two support vessels and CGS Samrat were involved in rendering assistance and evacuation of crew he addedNavy ship INS Talwar has proceeded to assist oil rig Sagar Bhushan and accommodation barge SS3 Both are adrift about 50 nautical miles southeast of Pipavav port an all weather port located 152 nautical miles from Nhava Sheva port near Mumbai the official saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever