As many as 23 labourers from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha were stuck in Manjeera river at this pilgrim centre since Friday night and the efforts were on to rescue them.
Although officials made an effort to press into service Air Force helicopters to airlift the labourers in the morning but it could not materialise due to bad weather. The helicopters could not take off from their base in Hyderabad. The airlift is likely to be taken up on Sunday morning.
The labourers working for labour contractor Srinivas Reddy were employed in the construction of three bridges in the vicinity and were provided temporary shelter on the other side of river — Tekulagadda. The labourers have been living there for the last six months as they were working in the construction of three bridges being taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 21 crore. The bridges once complete would reduce the distance between Pothamshettypally and Yedupayala by 15 kilometres.
On Friday night the labourers returned to their shelters as usual ignoring the advise of local residents not to go there in view of the possibility of a flood in river Manjeera.
Deputy Speaker M. Padma Devender Reddy and Collector D. Ronald Rose visited the spot. The Collector directed the revenue officials to vacate 60 shopkeepers around the Yedupayala temple as a precautionary measure.
A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reached the spot and after examining the options for rescuing the workers informed the Collector that since the stream had many boulders they could neither cross it nor use a boat for the rescue operation. “As a result, it has been decided to take up the rescue operation on Sunday morning with the help of Air Force helicopters. The helicopters flew twice for some distance they could not reach here due to bad weather,” Ms. Padma Devender Reddy said.
The District Collector said there was no threat to the lives of the labourer stuck at Tekulagadda and they would be rescued on Sunday morning.
