JAKARTA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia began to construct a memorial Tuesday for the victims of an overloaded boat which sank in North Sumatra province's Lake Toba last month, killing three people and leaving 164 others missing.
A groundbreaking ceremony was jointly carried out by representatives of the boat passenger's families in Lake Toba's Tigaras port.
Besides names of a total 188 passengers, the momument would also be engraved with their date of births and the date that marked their deaths in the lake on June 18.
"Option to build the memorial monument was approved at a meeting between the joint search team and representatives of the passengers," head of provincial National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Budiawan said at the port.
The move came after relatives of the victims would be allow to scatter flowers in the lake, letting bodies of their beloved rest at the bottom of the lake.
The decision would also terminate a 16-day search operation on Tuesday, Budiawan said.
Last week, a remotely operated vehicles (ROV) deployed by the search team captured images of bodies, wreckage of the boat at different depth of 455 and 420 meters below the lake surface, 3 km away from Tigaras port.
The search team will facilitate families of the passengers to scatter flowers in the lake, which may proceed in the next several days.
"I personally conveyed my deepest condolences for the victim's families, hoping that such a tragic incident should never happen again," Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Panjaitan said in Tigaras port on Monday.
Indonesian authorities have declared two provincial transportation officers, the boat owner and the administrator of Simanindo port suspects in one of the country's deadliest ferry disasters in nearly a decade.
Sinar Bangun capsized en route from Simanindo port to Tigaras port on June 18. Overloading and various breach of transportation regulations were blamed for the tragedy.
The search team rescued 21 of the passengers onboard, recovered bodies of three passengers, and declared 164 ones missing in the incident.
