Boat capsizes in Vijayawada, 26 feared dead

VIJAYAWADA: Tragedy struck after a boat carrying 38 tourists capsized at Ferry Ghat in Ibrahimpatnam area of the city on Sunday evening. In the mishap, around 9 persons have been confirmed dead while 17 more are still missing.
Ferry staff stated that it was the first time that the boat belonging to a two-month old company called ‘River Boating’ was coming to the area from Bhavani Island and the driver did not know about the silt existing in that part of the river.
He straight away rammed his speeding boat into the silt and capsized the vehicle where few members fell outside and several got stuck under the boat and the silt, thus rendering life jackets useless.

Twelve persons have been rescued so far by the NDRF, fire personnel, police teams and local lifeguards. According to eyewitnesses, they began hearing loud screams from far away and immediately private lifeguards from Simple Group rushed to the spot with rescue boats and swimmers and tried to rescue few members who fell out of the boat.

Soon, tension prevailed after YSRC workers lead by Pardasaradhi and Jogi Ramesh reached the spot and staged protest stating that the government has failed in providing safety and is aiming to promote water sports without it. However, cops who were busy with the rescue operations struggled to manage them.
City police commissioner D Gautam Sawang who reached the spot ordered more forces to be deployed another 40 police personnel to aid the rescue operations. Sawang also slammed the protestors of being insensitive. “These protestors (YCP members) are obstructing rescue operations for us, we are unable to move from one location to another freely,” police commissioner D Gautam Sawang told TOI.
Nine bodies have been recovered “We were notified by the lifeguards who witnessed the incident and soon rushed to spot and a lot of locals who knew swimming came onboard with us and we initially rescued two persons, two others were unconscious and two of them were dead,” Harish Kotagiri, manager of simple group, a private lifeguard company told TOI.
Explaining the mishap, Kotagiri said that the boat was supposed to take a round about turn to reach the yacht but since the driver was not aware of the silt in the route, he rammed the boat into it. Most of the victims are from Nellore and Ongole town. Rescue personnel did acknowledge that the boat had carried more people than the permissible capacity as it was a 30-seater boat.
Ambulances rushed the injured to Gollapudi Andhra Hospital and Vijayawada GGH for treatment. The bodies too were taken to GGH mortuary and are awaiting for the deceased family to reach the spot to initiate post-mortem procedure quickly. Cases has been registered at Ibrahimpatnam police station. The rescue operations are still on.
Timeline of events:
*Nellore Walkers Club and Ongole Walkers Club members came first to Bhavani Island and then took the boat to Pavithra Sangamam at around 4.30 pm.
*Around 5.20 pm, a boat carrying 38 members including six staff members rammed into a silt near the Ferry ghat.
*The boat leaned onto one side and due to weight imbalance it soon capsized.
*Few passengers fell outside the boat while several others were stuck under it as the boat had a small roof
*Some of them who knew swimming managed to go towards the land while few held onto the rod of the roof screaming for help.
*Noticing the screams, they mobilised four boats and eight swimmers within 5 minutes and reached the spot and managed to rescue six persons.
*However, they were unable to turn the heavy boat and tried to break it and soon, local police and other fire safety persons reached the spot.
*City police commissioner D Gautam Sawang along with his teams reached the spot and were overlooking the rescue operations.
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