Boat capsize: Four bodies recovered

Four bodies have been retrieved while search is continuing to trace the remaining three, five days after seven persons went missing in the Gautami river in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh after their boat capsized.

Bodies of a 35-year-old woman and three students were fished out in the last four days in a massive search operation jointly carried out by Navy, NDRF, SDRF and other teams.

This evening, the search teams discovered the body of a 15-year-old girl close to Yanam.

Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister (Home) N China Rajappa said the state government has decided to pay an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the deceased.

Earlier, the government offered only Rs 3 lakh each to the families of six girl students and Rs 5 lakh to the woman's.

"The chief minister wanted the ex gratia payment to be uniform and accordingly we have enhanced it," Rajappa said.

The search operation would continue till the three remaining bodies were also recovered, he added.

Seven people, including six girl students, were washed away in the Gautami river -- a tributary of Godavari -- on the evening of July 14 after the boat in which they were travelling collided with a concrete pier of a bridge under construction.