Lifeguards rescue four people from drowning

Amid Holi celebrations, lifeguards saved the lives of four young men at RK Beach and Appikonda Beach on Monday.

Lifeguards J. Harish, M. Naveen, B. Aravind, P. Achchanna, and M. Kishore at RK Beach (Pandurangapuram) rescued Kaushik, an intermediate student of Sri Chaitanya College of Railway New Colony, and Bashir of Narayana College from the same area. At Appikonda Beach, lifeguards Venkatesh, Tatarao and Lokesh Kumar saved S. Kumar and G. Kumar of Gajuwaka.

A lifeguard M. Naveen

Kumar, who along with his team was appreciated for rescuing the two youths at RK beach told The Hindu: “As soon as we get notified by the visitors or police about any missing persons, we jump into the sea to rescue them. We can swim up to 3 km from the shore and back in one attempt. However, missing of persons usually occurs less than 100 meters in the sea here.”

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) manages the lifeguards and their salaries. Every lifeguard should remain at their designated points from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and must respond to the emergency alerts given by the police and GVMC’s Command Control team.

At present 42 lifeguards have been deployed at points such as Bheemunipatnam, IT Junction, Sagar Nagar, Radisson Blu, Appughar, Jodugullapalem, RK Beach, Coastal Battery, Appikonda and Yarada beaches. Additionally, GVMC has also placed lifeguards at Mudasarlova and Meghadrigedda reservoirs.

“GVMC pays us ₹18,600 per month. We requested for advanced gadgets like rescue tube, spinal board, portable loudspeaker, rescue surf boat, firstaid kits, searchlight, binoculars and life buoy for efficient services and rescue operation in time,” Mr. Naveen said.