21 dead in Tourist Boat Tragedy; 29 survives

Bureau Report

Port Blair, Jan 27: Shocked by the Tourist Boat Capsize tragedy, the Andaman and Nicobar Administration has registered an FIR under registered under section 304/34 of the Indian Penal Code and investigations are being conducted by the Andaman & Nicobar Police.

“The owner of the boat, the operators and the crew deployed on the boat are being questioned by the Police, and are likely to be arrested and charged under non bailable offence,” Lt. Governor of A & N Islands, Lt. Gen (Retd.) A K Singh told ‘Andaman Sheekha’ today.

He said that to prevent such incidents in future, a detailed safety audit has been ordered of all the boats plying in and around the Islands, including those of the inter-island and mainland-island sector.

“Detailed Safety Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will be formulated and updated and strictly ensured,” he said.

The Andaman and Nicobar Administration will also undertake a safety audit by a technically competent agency and be completed in 30 days.

“The aspect of rescue and emergency response to such situations will also be highlighted and SOPs revised. Insurance of passengers will also be looked into,” he said.

Yesterday, a private Tourist boat named Aqua Marine capsized while commuting from Ross Island to North Bay. As per the updated information, 21 persons have been declared dead, 28 have been rescued and one person is still missing. Search operations are going on to find Mr Suresh from Tamil Nadu.

“The boat left Ross Island at 3:30 pm and the incident occurred 15 minutes or so after that. As soon as the various control rooms received messages regarding a boat in danger, rescue vessels were mobilized immediately by the Police and Directorate of Shipping Services to rush for rescue. The Port Control Tower also directed various vessels in the vicinity to rush for rescue efforts. Coast Guard joined the rescue efforts by pressing a helicopter for aerial reconnaissance and also supplemented the sea efforts through its vessels. Due to these joint efforts of the public, the neighbouring boats and the rescue vessels, 28 lives could be saved,” Rakesh Bali the Secretary of Andaman’s Information Publicity and Tourism told ‘Andaman Sheekha’ today.

Meanwhile, the Lieutenant Governor has conveyed his deepest condolences to the families of the bereaved and also to the Governors & Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. A prayer meeting in this regard is being organized tomorrow.

The Lt. Governor has also announced an ex-gratia payment of Rupees one lakh per deceased person to the bereaved family which is already being disbursed.

“The Additional District Magistrate, South Andaman has been directed to conduct a magisterial inquiry into the incident. The Magisterial inquiry will bring out the sequence of events, pinpoint the violations, if any with regard to the safety aspects and operational issues. It will also look into ways for strengthening the response mechanisms,” Mr. Bali added.

The boat had a group of tourists numbering 32 from Kanchipuram District of Tamil Nadu and another group of 10 tourists from Maharashtra, apart from two tourists each from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Kolkata.

Amongst the 21 persons dead, 16 people are from Tamil Nadu, 3 are from Maharashtra, one each are from UP and Kolkata. Senior government officials from Tamil Nadu have reached Port Blair today morning and in coordination with the A&N Administration arrangements have been made both for travel of the survivors as also the dispatch of dead bodies.

The dead bodies for the other states have already been dispatched.

“The preliminary report suggests that the boat was carrying more passengers than authorized and while life jackets were available on the boat, passengers were not wearing them. However, details of shortcomings and lapses will come out in the inquiry,” Mr. Bali added.