Chennai, May 8: The Suez of the East nearly claimed 19 lives but providence intervened on a dark, windy night.

The 19, among them a five-year-old, were on a tug ship deployed for monitoring the environmental impact of the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project when the vessel sank, 20 km off Point Calimere, near Nagapattinam, late on Saturday night. But a quick and well-coordinated rescue effort helped avert a tragedy, said N.K. Raghupathy, the chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust and the company implementing the project.

The tug, he added, tilted and capsized after a “mechanical failure” that resulted “in a burst in a component”. Officials said the passengers and the crew were lucky because the main dredging vessel of the Dredging Corporation of India, given the contract to deepen the Palk Strait, was nearby. “Fortunately, the explosion was so powerful that the personnel in the dredging ship heard a deafening noise and instructed the Tug-6 occupants to jump into the sea with lifeboats and escape,” said an official. The 19 were immediately evacuated and ferried ashore in the boats. Among them were three environmental scientists from the Centre for Advanced Study of Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore district and the wife and five-year-old child of the tug’s captain Chandran.

The mishap came as a jolt to the DMK-Congress alliance, which is locked in a tough electoral battle with Jayalalithaa’s ADMK to elect a new Assembly. The project has been one of the campaign talking points of the Opposition combine.

Those in favour of the project, dubbed the Suez of the East, say once the 167-km channel is ready, freighters sailing between the west and east coasts will no longer have to detour around Sri Lanka, thereby saving up to 30 hours of sailing time. But chief minister Jayalalithaa had opposed the project, saying it would affect marine life and threaten the business of fishermen.

Raghupathy, who rushed to Nagapattinam, said all the 19 are fine and “getting over the trauma”. “While the DG (shipping) will be investigating into the mishap, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard will also probe the accident. Prima facie, it looks a mechanical fault.” Raghupathy conceded that Sethusamudram is a “tough project” but added that precautions have been taken and all those who have to be frequently at sea as part of the scheme, have been insured.

He also said the wife and child of the tug’s captain had joined the monitoring team after getting special permission. The Tuticorin Port Trust chairman said the project team goes through frequent drills so that they are prepared to tackle emergencies. About the tug, he said it had been with the dredging corporation for 27 years and was worth less than Rs 3 crore going by its replacement value. He also said it was the corporation’s responsibility to remove the tug.

The mishap, he added, would not affect the project.