With little breakthrough in the ongoing rescue operations in about 1.7km-long tunnel at the NTPC hydel power project in Tapovan, Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, the rescue agencies are now using drones and dog squad to look for about 35 workers trapped inside.
Indian army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel are clearing the muck while the state disaster response force (SDRF) is in searching for bodies and relief work in the affected villages in Sunday’s tragedy.
Till Wednesday morning, the rescue workers were able to clear up to 100m of the tunnel with the workers feared to be trapped at a distance of 250m inside the tunnel. Beyond that point, muck brought in by the flash floods has filled the area.
SDRF deputy director general Riddhim Aggarwal who issued the permission for using drones and dog squad said, “Drones are being used for thermal and laser scanning of the tunnel to get traces of the trapped workers.”
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“Apart from this, helicopters are also being used for remote sensing so as to enable geographical mapping of the tunnel. This will not only clear the situation to much extent but also tell us about the amount of muck inside,” said Aggarwal.
{{/usCountry}}“Apart from this, helicopters are also being used for remote sensing so as to enable geographical mapping of the tunnel. This will not only clear the situation to much extent but also tell us about the amount of muck inside,” said Aggarwal.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier on Tuesday evening, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, after visiting the dam site, said that the rescue workers are now planning to get inside the tunnel using an alternative way.
“They are planning to drill the tunnel and get inside with the help of ropes because they are facing difficulty in clearing the muck even after using heavy machinery,” said Rawat.
Till Wednesday morning, rescue workers were able to recover total 32 bodies with 174 still missing. Out of the total 206 missing persons, about 190 are workers from the two dam projects-- Rishiganga and the NTPC Tapovan project.
State director general of police Ashok Kumar said, “Till Wednesday morning, 32 bodies have been recovered, including those of an assistant sub-inspector from Alaknanda river and a constable from debris of Rishiganga dam project.”