Ill-fated boat pulled out after 4-hr operation

Rajamahendravaram: The relief and rescue operations relating to boat capsize in river Godavari between Vadapalli (West Godavari) and Mantur (East Godavari) villages were started in full-scale on Wednesday. 

In the mishap occurred on Tuesday evening, 22 passengers died and 22 were saved. All the passengers boarded the motor launch at Devipatnam and Singanapalli villages to go to Kondamodalu and some other tribal villages. 

The officials could not take up rescue operations fully in the river on Tuesday night due to rain and gales and restored the operations on Wednesday morning. 

The officials brought a crane and a JCB from Triveni Construction company (Polavaram Project Contract company) to pull the drowned boat from the river. 

After four hours of relentless efforts, the boat was brought to river bank.  Meanwhile, two navy helicopters and 60 NDRF team members from Kakinada and Vijayawada searched for the drowned boat. The expert divers went up to 70 feet depth into the river to fish out the bodies but in vain. The bodies were in decomposed state as ill-fated boat was damaged completely.

After conducting post-mortem, the officials handed over the bodies to their family members. According to sources, the same boat met with an accident in 1992 in the river and about 50 persons died in the incident. Later, the existing owner Mohinuddin Khaja purchased the boat and running in the name of Lakshmi Venkateswara Motor Launch Service.

Lack of co-ordination between East and West Godavari district officials created confusion in providing facilities at both Mantur and Vadapalli villages. Meanwhile Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu reached to the spot at 1.20 pm and conducted a meeting with officials at Jala Sri tourist boat. 

He assured to extend all necessary help to the family members of the deceased. Deputy Chief Minister N Chinarajappa, ministers Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao, Nakka Anand Babu, MLAs Vanthala Rajeswari, Gorantla Butchaiah Choudary, Collectors and SPs of East and West Godavari districts Karthikeya Mishra, K Bhaskar, Vishal Gunni and Ravi Prakash were present.