Five are still missing after a tourist boat capsized on the Yamuna River in Mathura near Vrindavan on Friday. The incident left 10 dead and 22 others injured. The boat, which sank in a swamp area, was retrieved on Saturday morning; the bodies of the missing people were not found.
DIG Shailesh Kumar Pandey said, "For the past four hours, we had been trying to remove the boat, which had overturned and got trapped in a deep swamp area."
The DIG said that the missing people may have drowned in the river. Those missing have been identified as Manik Tandon, Pankaj Malhotra, Rishab Sharma, Yash Bhalla and Monika.
The victims were mostly tourists from Punjab.
On Friday afternoon at around 3 pm, the boat, which was carrying around 30 passengers, moved into a part of the river with deeper water and hit a floating pontoon, officials said. The tourists were part of a larger group of about 150 pilgrims from Ludhiana and Muktsar in Punjab who came to Vrindavan.
Authorities said that a pontoon bridge had been recently dismantled in the area due to the rising water levels.
When the dismantling was done, some of the pontoon drums were left in water, which is believed to have collided with the boat, officials say. Locals, howver told media that the boat began to sway violently due to high-speed winds, which caused it to pick up speed and colllide with the pontoon of the bridge.
Shet Jain, a 32-year-old Ludhiana resident whose mother is on ventilator support, asked why boats were allowed near repair zones while speaking to HT. “An iron bridge was floating in the river, and the boatman tried to push it away with the boat. That caused the mishap. Help did not arrive immediately after we capsized,” he said.
Officials also said that the submerged drums could have caused the collision. “It is believed the collision with one of these submerged objects caused the boat to lose balance and overturn,” the official added.
However, officials are still investigating the exact cause that led to the boat capsizing.
Over 15 people were rescued so far, and they were taken of Ram Krishna Mission hospital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the loss of lives.
The PM also announced that an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh would be provided to the victims who were killed and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.
