By IANS
Mumbai : Five crewmembers of an Oil and Natural Gas Corpn (ONGC) vessel were reported missing after one of its vessels, Samudrik-10, went down in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Mumbai Monday. Rescue operations are on.
"We managed to rescue nine of the 14 crew members of the vessel immediately after it sank. Five are still missing," said a senior ONGC official in Mumbai.
"All out efforts are being made with the help of one chopper and three vessels in search and rescue operations. Samudrika-10 was operating in the sea at 56 nautical miles from Nhava Supply Base of ONGC at the time of the incident," said an ONGC statement.
The vessel was being operated by a private firm SICAL under an operations and maintenance contract.
The vessel, which according to sources sank due to flooding, was set out by ONGC for supplying material to its offshore locations and is part of a fleet of around 60 supply vessels.
"Preliminary reports said that the vessel sank due to flooding. However, there was no oil spill," said Coast Guard Region (West) Commander, Inspector General A. Rajasekhar.
ONGC also said the accident would not act as an obstacle to its regular operations. The insured value of the vessel is likely to be in the range of $2-3 million, the statement said.