‘No option but to jump into the sea’: Survivors recount harrowing escape

MUMBAI: At 12.37pm on Monday afternoon, barge P305 started taking in water from the Arabian Sea. Cyclone Tauktae was intensifying and winds had already snapped the barge’s 12 anchors the previous night, pushing the it 50km farther into sea.

All 263 people on board the mega structure rushed to the deck, sensing danger. Indrajeet Sharma, 33, was one of them.

By 2pm, water was gushing into the barge and it was tilting dangerously. As it sank slowly, Sharma and others faced two options: Jump into the stormy waters or take their chances on the submerging structure. By 6pm, the choice was clear.

“I had no other option except jumping into the sea to save my life,” said Sharma, a senior engineer. The barge sank at 7pm.

For the next eight hours, Sharma and his colleagues bobbed up and down in their life jackets. Many, like his colleague Faraz Nadkar, held hands with others they knew from the barge. “We decided that if we would die, we’d die together,” said 22-year-old Nadkar.

MUMBAI: At 12.37pm on Monday afternoon, barge P305 started taking in water from the Arabian Sea.

Cyclone Tauktae was intensifying and winds gusting up to 200kmph had already snapped the barge’s 12 anchors the previous night, pushing the barge 50km farther into sea from its fixed position near an oil rig in the Heera fields.

All 261 people on board the mega structure – marine crew, labourers and engineers – rushed to the deck, sensing danger. Indrajeet Sharma, 33, was one of them.

By 2pm, water was gushing into the barge and it was tilting dangerously into the sea. As the barge sank slowly, Sharma and others faced two tough options: Jump into the stormy waters or take their chances with the submerging structure. By 6pm, the choice was clear.

“I had no other option except jumping into the sea to save my life,” said Sharma, a senior engineer who had been working on the barge since last May. The barge eventually sank at 7pm.

For the next eight hours, Sharma and five or six of his colleagues from the barge bobbed up and down in their life jackets as the storm passed and the sea calmed down.

Many, like his colleague Faraz Nadkar, held hands with people they knew from the barge, and spoke about their families and loved ones. “We decided that if we would die, we’d die together,” said Nadkar, a 22-year-old archidifficult. tect who joined the barge a few months ago. They were finally picked up by navy rescue ships early Tuesday morning.

“After spending 8 hours in the water, I was rescued by INS Kochi at 2am on Tuesday. I could not open my eyes for almost 24 hours as I spent several hours in the salty water,” he said.

Nadkar was rescued four hours later. “We spent around 12 hours in the water and for most of the time we spoke of our families,” he said.

P305 was one of three barges that were carried adrift by Tauktae, the most powerful storm to hit Mumbai in two decades, and has become the focal point of rescue operations. On Tuesday, rescuers pulled out 26 bodies and 49 people still missing.

After two days of search and rescue operations, Indian Naval Ship (INS) Kochi returned to Tiger Gate in Mumbai harbour on Wednesday morning with 125 survivors of barge P305.

On Monday morning, the Indian Navy received a distress call from P305 and immediately dispatched three ships -- INS Kochi, Talwar and Kolkata -- to rescue the people, even as inclement weather made the search and rescue operations INS Kochi, which left Mumbai harbour around 10am on Monday, was the first to reach the site at 4pm. INS Kolkata reached around midnight. The Navy also deployed helicopters and aircraft to conduct aerial surveys. Other ships, including offshore support vessels, multipurpose support vessels and Coast Guard vessels got involved in the SAR operations the following day.

The barge, owned and operated by Durmast Enterprises Limited, had been chartered by a consortium led by Afcons Infrastructure Limited for an Oil and Natural Gas (ONGC) project in the Western Offshore fields in the Arabian Sea. The people on board comprised marine crew, labourers on contract, and employee of Afcons, some of whom blamed their employers for the predicament.

“Our employer thought that nothing would happen in the cyclone due to which we faced the most terrifying day of our lives,” said Nadkar, who was rescued by INS Kochi around 6am on Tuesday. “We waited till the last moment when the ship was just about to sink,” he added.

“It is the mistake of the company to not take the decision to send us to Mumbai from the high sea,” said Dombivali resident Deepak Ingle, 30, a technician who started work on the barge in December.

Some survivors said they’d lost everything in the tragedy.

“I prayed to God all night that I would live to see my parents again,” said Sunil Kumar Madhesia (22), who hails from Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh.

I had no other option except jumping into the sea to save my life

INDRAJEET SHARMA,

Survivor from barge P305