VIJAYAWADA: Four fishermen, who ventured into the Bay of Bengal, reportedly went missing off Machilipatnam coast. Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Police have launched an extensive search for four fishermen, said Krishna District Collector P Ranjitha Basha on Tuesday.
In a press release issued here, Ranjith Basha said that the fishermen were identified as V Chinna Mastan (51), R Chinna Nanchariah (64), Ch Narasimha Rao (51) and M Venkateswara Rao (44).They ventured into the sea in two boats on July 2. The fishermen who reached Antarvedi were on their way back to Machilipatnam. However, the fibreglass boat’s engine stopped.
The last information came from the missing fishermen was at 7.30 pm on July 3. The Navy officials deployed a chopper to locate the boat. Search operations went on for four hours but in vain. Once again, the search operations will be carried out on Wednesday.
Besides that, two Coast Guard boats Priyadarshini and Veera were also roped in for the search operation. The marine officials have informed the district administration that another chopper will be pressed into service on Wednesday, Basha said.
The Collector further said that Joint Collector Mahesh Kumar Ravirala was in regular touch with the coast guard, Navy and Marine officials.
Anticipating that the boat may come ashore following heavy tides in the sea. The fisheries department officials have issued an alert from Machilipatnam to Visakhapatnam. Officials from the State disaster team were also making efforts to locate the missing fishermen.