2014 Andaman boat disaster was an incident which occurred on 26 January 2014, when a tourist boat capsized near

Port Blair Port Blair () is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South An ...

Andaman and Nicobar islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, killing 22 people. The boat "Aqua Marine" was carrying 45 tourists from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Accident

The boat "Aqua Marine" was carrying 45 tourists from India from Ross Islands to North Bay when it sank and at least 21 people lost their lives. The capacity of the boat was 25 and overloading of the boat resulted in the tragedy. The boat sank at a distance of about 2.5 km from the shore of Port Blair and majority of the tourists were from

. The administration of the Island group was busy with Republic Day of India and learnt the news at 4.30 p.m. on 26 January 2014. More than 29 people were rescued by district administration while one was still missing. Rescued were admitted to G B Pant hospital. The boat had no life jackets and there were no divers on board. Reports say that two months before this accident, a tourist wrote a letter to the union tourism ministry about the lack of safety standards in Andaman islands’ tourism circuit.

Aftermath

Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration announced a 100,000 Indian Rupee ex-gratia payment to the family of the deceased tourists. India's then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and

Chief Minister

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...

expressed their grief over the accident, while Jayalalithaa also announced a compensation of 100,000 Indian Rupees each to the families of dead. Owner of the boat and two others were detained by the law enforcing agencies for enquiry.

References

{{coord missing, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Maritime incidents in India Maritime incidents in 2014 2014 disasters in India History of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands ! Accidental deaths in India Andaman boat disaster