More than a week after almost non-stop rescue operations began to search for more than 30 people stranded inside the head race tunnel (HRT) at the NTPC hydropower plant site in Tapovan, rescue teams for the first time found six bodies inside the 1.6 km long slush filled tunnel. The discovery deflated the hopes of the families of the trapped workers who have been praying for a miracle.
"The bodies were recovered 125 metres inside the tunnel. Our team is continuing clearing the slush in order to go deeper inside," said Vivek Pandey, spokesperson, ITBP. Rescue agencies had estimated that the stranded persons would be at a point 180m into the tunnel. Till Sunday night, the rescue teams had reached 140m inside, sources said.
During the day,14 bodies were recovered from different parts of flash-flood ravaged Chamoli, taking the total toll to 52, while 152 people are still reported missing, Chamoli’s district disaster management officer Nandkumar Joshi said.
The marathon rescue work involves personnel drawn from the ITBP, NDRF, SDRF and Indian Army. Even as clearing operations in the main tunnel continue, drilling is still on at the auxiliary silt flushing tunnel in an attempt to reach the tunnel from that end, the sources added. Besides the six bodies found in the tunnel, seven were recovered near Raini village and one body was found from Rudraprayag.
Rescue ops at tunnel hit as river level rises
Earlier, rescue operations at the Tapovan hydel project site hit a wall - first, when the new plan to dig straight down to an underground tunnel and reach the 34 trapped workers didn’t work and later when waters of the Dhauliganga river started swelling again.
