Scores dead as ferry sinks in India's Assam

[NewsCaster]

An overcrowded river ferry has split in two and sunk during a severe storm in northeast India, leaving at least 103 people dead and many more missing.

Women and children were among the passengers on the ferry, which sank in the fast-flowing Brahmaputra river in Assam state on Monday.

"The fate of around 100 others is not known," PC Haloi, police chief of Dhubri district, said.

The AFP news agency reported that about 150 people were either rescued or swam to safety after the double-decker ferry capsized, police said.

The boat was on its way from Dhubri, about 300km from Assam's largest city Guwahati, to the adjoining district of Fakirganj.

Ferry over capacity

Al Jazeera's Prerna Suri, reporting from New Delhi, said that there were conflicting reports on the number of passengers on the ferry, with some saying that it was carrying as many as 350 people.

"Darkness has descended, there's also bad weather in that area where the accident took place," she said.

"So all these conditions are making rescue and relief operations very challenging."

She said that this is one of the worst ferry accidents ever in India.

Ferry travel is one of the cheapest forms of transport in India, and many staying in smaller villages do not have any other options for travel.

"What happens usually, such as in this case, operators tend to fill passengers up to capacity, much more than capacity," Al Jazeera's Suri said.

"The sheer size of the number of passengers, combined with the hostile weather conditions in that area, resulted literally in that boat splitting up into two."

Another accident in the Dhubri district last week claimed the lives of four women, she said.

Manmohan Singh, Indian prime minister, called the sinking a "tragedy" and said he had pledged all possible assistance to the state government in the search.

'Shocked and grieved'

Singh said in a statement that he was "shocked and grieved to know about the loss of lives".

He said that he had given instructions "for all possible assistance to the government of Assam in relief operations and also for assistance from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund to the families of the deceased".

Tarun Gogoi, Assam state chief minister, said Singh had telephoned him and promised to rush disaster-response units from New Delhi and other locations.

"Army, Border Security Force and other rescue teams with mechanised boats have moved to the site but nightfall and bad weather are hampering rescue efforts," Gogoi said.

Boats are a common form of transport in India's remote rural regions but accidents are often caused by lax safety standards and overloading.

In one of the last major ferry disasters in India, at least 79 Muslim pilgrims drowned when an overcrowded boat sank in the eastern state of West Bengal in October last year.

The vessel, which was carrying around 150 people, capsized in a river in the Sundarbans mangrove forest, 120km south of Kolkata, the state capital of West Bengal.

Al Jazeera