Franco Gabrielli, the Head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency, said divers had recovered bodies from the site where the Costa Concordia sank last year in the sea off Tuscany. The Costa Concordia was floated two weeks ago in a 19-hour parbuckling operation. Gabrielli also said the remains were currently undergoing DNA tests.
Although 32 people died when the Costa Concordia capsized, 30 bodies were recovered. An Italian woman and Indian man were not found during the retrieval operations.
In April last year, American marine salvage firm Titan Salvage and Italian marine contractor Micoperi were awarded the contract to refloat the Costa Concordia. An Economic Times report revealed that the total cost of the parbuckling project so far was already USD 798 million or EUR 600 million. This was said to be more expensive than the value of the ship itself according to a Wall Street Journal report. The Economic Times further revealed that one of the insurance firms that would pick up the tab on the operations has estimated that the total cost could go up to as much as USD 1.1 billion.
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