Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that the nation was pained at Wednesday’s accident that destroyed the INS Sindhurakshak submarine resulting in 18 Naval personnel being feared dead, naval divers have not yet located any survivors or bodies inside the ill-fated submarine.
The Indian Navy may also consider the option of hiring the services of a Singapore-based professional salvaging agency to salvage the submarine as this could be beyond the current capabilities of the Navy. Extracting the sunk submarine from the Mumbai naval dockyard by ensuring the required buoyancy may also be a tall order and could take a considerable amount of time.
The government also released the list of names of the 18 naval personnel inside the submarine at the time of the accident. The three officers who were inside the submarine have been identified as Lt. Cdr. Nikhilesh Pal, Lt. Cdr. Alok Kumar and Lt. Cdr. R. Venkitaraj. In case the bodies of the personnel on board are not found within a stipulated amount of time in the submarine that saw huge explosions, the Navy will have to take a decision on declaring the personnel as “assumed dead” following which the families of the deceased can avail of the financial dues and other entitlements.
Speculation was rife on the possible causes of the tragedy that could include a possible human error by the sailors while loading the missile inside the submarine. There is a very real possibility of the Russians assisting in the probe that could take about four weeks to be completed.
The terrible tragedy could also now trigger an exhaustive evaluation of the status of the safety mechanisms inside all the remaining submarines of the Indian Navy especially the Russian-origin submarines that form two-thirds of the Indian naval submarine fleet.
Meanwhile, in his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said. “We are deeply pained that we lost the submarine, INS Sindurakshak in an accident yesterday. Eighteen brave sailors are feared to have lost their lives. The accident is all the more painful because the Navy had recently achieved two major successes in the form of its first (indigenous) nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant and the (indigenous) aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. We pay homage to the brave hearts we have lost.”
In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the Navy said, “(Eighteen) trapped personnel have not yet been sighted or recovered. The diving efforts are hampered by poor visibility inside submarine (which is filled with water), extremely restricted spaces and displacement of most equipment from their original location. The heat of the explosion has melted parts of the internal hull deforming the submarine hatches and preventing access to compartments.”
The Navy said its divers had entered the INS Sindhurakshak on Wednesday evening and that “efforts continue round-the-clock to ascertain the status of the 18 trapped personnel who were inside the submarine at the time of the incident”. It further said, “Heavy duty pumps are being used to pump out the water from the submarine. There has been largescale ingress of sea water into the submarine due to the explosion. Diving and salvage operations are continuing round-the-clock.”
The names of the 15 sailors who were among the 18 personnel on board the ill-fated submarine are Sanjeev Kumar, K.C. Upadhyay, Timothy Sinha, Kewal Singh, Sunil Kumar, Dasari Prasad, Liju Lawrence, Rajesh Tootika, Amit K. Singh, Atul Sharma, Vikas, Naruttam Deuri, Malay Haldar, Vishnu V. and Seetaram Badapalli.