Government officials, media persons were scheduled to do puja for memorial
Mumbai: A speedboat carrying senior government officials capsized near the location of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Smarak site near Nariman Point in the Arabian Sea in Mumbai.
One person Siddhesh Pawar, was drowned. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed grief towards Pawar’s death and announced Rs 5 lakh compensation for his family.
The trip, which involved two boats, had been planned to do puja for laying the foundation statue of the memorial, which is located around 3.5 km into the Arabian Sea. A team of 40 journalists was dispatched in one boat, while the government officials were in another boat.
After the accident, which took place at 4.15 pm , the work on the memorial, which was to take off on Wednesday, was postponed.
The speedboat belonged to the Maharashtra government and was carrying at least 40 media persons, TV crew and officials. The Coast Guard, Marine Police and other agencies launched a major rescue operation with boats and two helicopters and managed to rescue all the people, except one who was feared missing, an official said. Another boat, which was in the vicinity, managed to reach the spot within minutes and helped rescue the victims.
According to the rescue team, three people fell into the sea after the boat capsized. Two of them have been rescued, whereas one is still reportedly missing.
Sakal reporter Sanjay Miskin said the captain of their boat had no idea about the location, due to which the boat could not reach the spot on time.
“We were travelling in the sea for at least two hours and finally returned without attending the pooja,” said Miskin. Senior journalist Yogesh Naik was in the boat with the government officials. He said they started from the Gateway of India. Later on, the route was through a rocky area.
“The boatwas overcrowded and hence it capsized,” he said.
