MUMBAI: In a Sea-Air Coordinated Operation, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) rescued six Sri Lankan fishermen who were stuck in a capsized boat, stranded and adrift at the sea in rough weather for four days. 


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The operation was carried out nearly 190 Nautical Miles north-west of Port Blair, 170 miles east of Chennai.


A tweet from the Indian Coast Guard’s official Twitter handle read, “In a Sea Air coordinated operation, @IndianCoastGuard ship Rajkamal rescued six Sri Lankan fishermen from a distressed boat 190 Nm NW of Port Blair AM 11 Jul, , despite adverse weather and sea conditions. Boat taken under tow and likely to reach PBlair 12 Jul @DefenceMinIndia’’



According to reports, an On July 5, a merchant vessel, which was on its way to Visakhapatnam, sighted a capsized fishing boat with six sailors. 


The Merchant Vessel, MV YM Summit informed the location of the boat to be about 170 NM east of Chennai to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC).


The information from MRCC, Mumbai, was timely shared with Chennai for further coordination. MRCC Chennai later coordinated with the vessel for the safe rescue of the survivors.


The six survivors were identified as natives of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. They were reportedly stranded in the sea for four days in-between the rough weather. After identification of the rescued men to be from the neighbouring country, the ICG officials further coordinated with Colombo to verify the credentials and arranged for their safe return home.


India and Sri Lanka have a robust cooperative framework in place in the form of a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Coast Guards and the MRCCs of both the countries, reads the ICG statement.