With no trace of 15 people from barge P305 and 11 from tugboat Varaprada 6 days after Cyclone Tauktae fury rendered the vessels mistakenly, the Navy on Saturday placed specialized diving teams to increase the speed of search and rescue operations (SAR) in the Mumbai coast. To increase the ongoing SAR ops for the missing crew of Barge P305 and Tug Varaprada, specialized diving teams onboard INS Makar with side-scan sonar and INS Tarasa sailed out early morning today from Mumbai, a Navy spokesperson tweeted.

The death toll on barge P305 that sank in the Arabian Sea on Monday reached 60 on Friday with the recovery of 11 more bodies even as the Navy and the Coast Guard continued looking for 15 more missing people from the barge and 11 from Varaprada. While all the 440 persons on barges Gal Constructor and Support Station 3 (SS-3) and drillship Sagar Bhushan were brought to land to safety, Naval and Coast Guard vessels and aircraft cleaned the waters from the Mumbai coast.

Mumbai police have announced they will conduct an inquiry as to why the ill-fated barge remained in the turbulent area despite warnings about cyclone Tauktae, an official said. The police have also registered accidental death reports in connection with the death of the personnel on the barge.