Calcutta, March 8: A pusher tug, a small barge that propels a bigger vessel, drowned in the Hooghly near Prinsep Ghat on Friday night, releasing oil into the river.

Attempts to salvage barge Bhagadutta, owned by the Assam government, was supposed to start today, according to what Calcutta Port Trust officials had said. “The barge drowned near Prinsep Ghat and the Man o’ War jetty, upstream to Vidyasagar Setu,” said a port trust official.

The River Traffic Police, which inspected the spot first after being alerted by the barge crew, informed the state pollution board that a “huge amount of oil” was seen floating in the water.

“We can comment on the impact of the oil spill on the environment only after analysing the samples,” said Shyamal Adhikary, a senior engineer of the board who supervised an inquiry into the effect of the leak.

Biswajit Mukherjee, the chief law officer of the pollution control board, said: “As there has been a spill, there is bound to be some pollution in the river. We can discuss about remedial action after the test report comes.”