6 June 2021 19:24 GMT Updated 6 June 2021 19:24 GMT in London
Three senior officials at India’s state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) have been suspended amid the investigation into the vessels sinking at its Mumbai High field offshore India’s west coast which cost the lives of 86 personnel.
The three ONGC executive directors, which are respectively in charge of drilling, safety and exploration, according to local media, have been suspended as the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas probes the fatal incidents during Cyclone Tauktee.
Afcons’ barge Papaa 305, which had 261 workers onboard when the cyclone hit, capsized and sank with the loss of 75 lives. Another 11 crew members from the tugboat Varapradha also perished when it too sank after the cyclone last month barrelled through ONGC’s Mumbai High fields.