Sorrow engulfs kin as death toll hits 22

Devipatnam (East Godavari): Rescue teams continued search operations late into the night on Wednesday after a launch with 44 passengers on it capsized in the River Godavari near Mantur in Devipatnam mandal of East Godavari district on Tuesday even as officials put the toll at 22.

The toll may go up as it is suspected that some people may have been washed away when they jumped into the river and tried to swim to safety.
Till afternoon on Wednesday, officials supervised the operation to pull the ill-fated launch to the surface of the river from a depth of 60 ft to which it sank, after it capsized unable to face the high velocity winds that accompanied torrential rain.

The relatives of the passengers who were missing waited on the river bank with anxiety writ large on their faces as the workers toiled to bring the launch up. The officials had two tents pitched up at the bank for the relatives to sit and wait.

When the launch was finally brought to the surface with the help of a crane and a JCB and bodies were brought outside, the relatives broke down watching their fate.

In the evening, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu who visited the mishap site, commiserated with the relatives and promised all help from the government.

The launch began its fateful journey at Kondamodalu at about 4.30 pm on Tuesday and, after taking more passengers at Devipatnam, resumed its journey. It had no problem when it stopped at Singanapalle. But as it reached Mulapadu, the sky became overcast and soon there was rain accompanied by powerful winds.

The passengers in the boat who were about 44 by then advised the boat driver to wait at Mulapadu for the hailstorm to subside, but he would not listen. "Explaining to us that he had a lot of experience in driving the boat, he continued the journey and as we were reaching Manturu, the weather turned worse," one survivor of the mishap Ravi Babu said.

As the launch rocked under the impact of driving rain and winds hitting it repeatedly, the staff asked the passengers to get inside the rooms in the boat but by then a handful of them had jumped into the river and began swimming furiously to reach the bank.

The other passengers were huddled inside the rooms where there were 60 cement bags and were asked to wait there for the weather to improve. As rain continued, cement bags began becoming wet and the staff then closed the doors of the rooms, blocking the only way for the passengers to escape. They became helpless as boat began sinking.

One valiant tribal woman Poshamma who swam to safety said: "Had the driver listened to us and waited for the hailstorm to subside, the mishap would have been averted."

Though officials reached the spot on Tuesday night itself, they could not do much as it was pitch dark all over. On Wednesday morning, at the first light, Navy sent helicopters and NDRF teams arrived to look for survivors in the river even as official requisitioned a crane and JCB from nearby Polavaram Project site and began efforts to yank the launch from the bed of the river.

East Godavari District Collector Karthikeya Mishra termed the incident unfortunate. "This is a very unfortunate incident. We are trying to provide as much help as possible to the survivors and to the kin of those killed."

Though the officials thought pulling the launch up would not be difficult, they were proved wrong as a couple of times, the cable from the crane which was hooked to the launch snapped. Finally, they succeeded by using a stronger cable and when the launch finally appeared at the surface, it was dragged to the bank.

The workers who were waiting for the launch, immediately got inside and began retrieving the bodies. The entire operation was supervised by the collectors of East and West Godavari districts - Karthikeya Mishra and K Bhaskar respectively. The Chief Minister watched as the workers took out bodies from inside of the launch and reviewed the situation with the collectors.

Later he said he would constitute an authority to bring all issues relate to boats and launched under one roof and announced Rs 10 lakh to the kin of those who were killed, training to one member of the family for skill development and helping him to get a job. Naidu said he would have the factors studied that are responsible for accidents in Godavari River between Dowleswaram and Papikondalu.

By SS Chary