Aftermath of cyclone Tauktae: What caused the ONGC barge tragedy

When Cyclone Tauktae struck on May 17, there were 342 installations in the Western Offshore region of the Arabian Sea with 7,675 people.

Of these installations, 243 were fixed and 99 floating. ONGC officials say based on the weather warning, it activated its emergency response system and issued instructions to all installations to take action in line with the standard operating procedure.     

5 vessels that were stranded

Support Station-3 Construction Barge: Carried 202 people. Encountered mechanical problem while moving to safe location, its towing wire line snapped and started drifting. All rescued.

Sagar Bhushan Drill ship of ONGC: 101 onboard. Was required to stay there per SOP. However, its anchors gave away and it developed mechanical fault in the steering system. All rescued.

Gal Constructor barge: Carried 137 people, was at safe location. But, anchors gave away and it started drifting. All rescued.

P-305 Construction barge: Carried 261. It continued to be near the platform where it was working. Its anchors gave away. Started drifting and hit an unmanned platform and capsized. Of 261 crew, 186 rescued. 49 dead and search for remaining 26 is going on.

Varaprada- Anchor handling boat of Gal Constructor: 13 people onboard. 2 rescued. Search for remaining 11 on.