14 June,2023 08:38 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday said that it has decided to appoint as many as 120 guards at all six public beaches in the city to prevent drowning incidents.
The guards will be working in different shifts and will keep a watch on the tourists visiting the public beaches in the city, the officials said.
"To prevent drowning incidents at Mumbai beaches, BMC has decided to appoint 120 guards at all 6 public beaches in Mumbai. These 120 guards will work in 2 shifts and ensure that citizens and tourists do not venture near the sea when it is not safe. Decision was taken in a High-level meeting chaired by BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, the BMC said," according to the ANI.
Meanwhile, in a tragic incident that took place earlier this week at Juhu, a group of five boys from the Vakola area in suburban Santacruz (East), aged between 12 and 16 years, was pulled inside the rough sea by strong currents on Monday evening when they went near the shore.
One of the five boys was rescued by local fishermen, while the remaining four went missing, prompting officials to launch a search operation with help from the Navy and the Indian Coast Guard.
The Fire Brigade suspended the search operation due to darkness and bad weather around 11 pm on Monday. Before that, a Navy chopper was pressed into service at 8.20 pm.
After the operation resumed, on early Tuesday morning, the Mumbai police recovered the bodies of two missing boys, while the body of a third one was found in the afternoon from the Juhu Jetty area, said an official, according to the PTI.
The deceased, whose bodies were sent to civic-run Cooper Hospital, were identified as Manish Yogesh Oganiya (12), Shubham Yogesh Oganiya (15) and Dharmesh Valji Faujiya (16), he had said.
The fourth one, Jay Roshan Tajbariya (15), was still missing, informed the official.
Authorities have already warned people and fishermen against venturing into the sea because of the rough conditions ahead of the landfall of cyclone 'Biparjoy' on the Gujarat coast on June 15.
