Thekkady (Kerala), Oct 14 : Two more people - a shipping official and an employee of the company that manufactured the ill-fated boat that capsized in the Thekkady lake last month killing 45 tourists - were arrested Wednesday for lapses in conducting some mandatory tests on the vessel.

The two arrested men were -- K.K. Sanjeev, the surveyor of the Indian Registrar of Shipping, and N.A. Giri, the official working with the firm based in Chennai that manufactured the boat.

With this, the total numberof arrests has gone up to six. Those arrested earlier for negligence that led to the Thekkady boat tragedy Sep 30 were the driver of the boat, his assistant, the chief boat inspector and a forest guard.

The crime branch of the state police had asked Sanjeev and Giri to reach Thekkady so that experts could conduct a test on the boat, and soon after the test was conducted the police acted swiftly and took them into custody.

Shipping expert K.S. Pyarelal led the centre of gravity test, and told the media he would be able to disclose the results of the test in 10 days as a lot of calculations have to be made.

"The arrests were made because some basic and mandatory tests were not done," Pyarelal said.

Last week Pyarelal had conducted a preliminary tests and said that the boat had a 2.9-degree tilt to the right.

The double-decker boat owned by the state-run Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) capsized in the lake in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.

The state government has already requested the Kerala High Court for the services of a high court judge to conduct a judicial probe.  (IANS)