Teams from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) began operations on Thursday morning to trace the two missing passengers of the capsized boat, which collided with a larger boat a day earlier on the Brahmaputra river in Assam.
Officials said that as per new information available till 8.30am on Thursday, the capsized boat had 87 passengers. Initially it was suspected that the boat was carrying over 100 passengers.
“Of the total passengers, one woman who was rescued died later in hospital, 84 others have been rescued or accounted for and two others are missing. Rescue operations, which continued till late Wednesday night have resumed again on Thursday morning,” Ashok Kumar Barman, deputy commissioner, Jorhat, said.
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Around 4pm on Wednesday, two boats collided and the smaller one of the two capsized around 100 metres away from the Nematighat bank between Kamalabari in Majuli district and Nematighat in Jorhat district.
The deceased passenger has been identified as Parimita Das, a resident of Guwahati who was working as a lecturer at a college in Majuli. The two missing persons are Jaan Baruah, a resident of Lakhimpur, and Dr Bikramjit Baruah, a resident of Jorhat.
{{/usCountry}}The deceased passenger has been identified as Parimita Das, a resident of Guwahati who was working as a lecturer at a college in Majuli. The two missing persons are Jaan Baruah, a resident of Lakhimpur, and Dr Bikramjit Baruah, a resident of Jorhat.
{{/usCountry}}“We started our rescue operations from 6.00am on Thursday. At present, four NDRF teams are involved in the search for the two missing persons,” informed Hari Ram Yadav, assistant commandant, 1st battalion, NDRF, Assam.
“On Wednesday night, we located the capsized boat, which was found several kilometers downstream. Our team cut a portion of the overturned boat to look for missing persons, but no one was found there,” he added.