Kolkata: Hopes of tracing the 18 missing
passengers of a boat that sank in the Rupnarayan river almost
faded on Tuesday, with speedboats and divers searching for them in
vain in West Bengal`s East Midnapore district.
Authorities, however, said the search would continue for
some more days.
"We will wait five or six days before abandoning the
search. None of the bodies have found," Chief Secretary Asok
Mohan Chakraborty told reporters.
He said that there was a chance that the bodies would
float to the surface within 72 hours.
The boat also remains untraced even as locals were using
fishing nets to recover the bodies.
Altogether, 20 speedboats and 22 divers from the Coast
Guard, the BSF, Kolkata Police River Traffic wing, Kolkata
Port Trust were continuing the search.
Two hovercraft have also joined the search, the chief
secretary said.
Civil defence personnel were waiting in boats at
different points to spot bodies before they were washed into
the sea.
PTI
