In what could be said a huge tragedy that a tourist boat named Royal Punnami capsized near Kachchuluru village of Devipatnam in Godavari river. The boat was carrying 50 tourists and 13 crew when the tragedy occurred.
The boat was en route to Papikondalu from Gandipochamma temple on Sunday afternoon. Despite the government prohibited boat tours in the Godavari due to incessant rains, a private travel agency was alleged to have run the boat without prior permission from the government.
The boat had the capacity of 90 tourists and sufficient life jackets were kept in it. However, now that the tourists were merely involved in cultural programmes, most of them ignored wearing life jackets which eventually led them drowned in the river throwing their families in a state of an utter dismay.
On the other hand, it's being alleged that non local drivers ran the boat and just one engine was working instead of three engines at the time of the accident. Sadly, both the drivers were killled in the disaster.
Two teams of NDRF were deployed right away after the mishap. Currently, rescue operations are being made on war foot basis. As of now, seven dead bodies were recovered while 10 more tourists were saved.
AP CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed his grief on the boat tragedy and announced Rs.10 lakhs ex gratia to the families of deceased. He ordered a probe on the tragedy. Former CM Chandrababu Naidu expressed his shocker with the tragedy while Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan directed his party's workers to visit the accident spot and to participate in rescue operations.