Despite lowering the water level to its lowest ebb in the Beas on Saturday, rescue teams were unable to locate any body of the missing engineering students for the second consecutive day. One tour operator and 16 students, who were among the 25 people washed away by the strong currents of the Beas on Sunday last, are still missing. The tragedy occurred when huge volumes of water was released by the Larji Dam authorities allegedly without any warning.
On Saturday, the authorities lowered the water level in a three-km stretch from the accident site at Thalot towards the downstream Pong Dam. But the strong contingent of 600 rescue troops, who started the search at 6 a.m., returned empty-handed much to the dismay of the parents waiting anxiously.
Focus of operationADVERTISEMENT
Officers of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said the focus of Saturday’s operation was on locating bodies trapped under boulders. They said they were sure there were no more bodies trapped in the three-km area. On Sunday, the search team will deploy side scan sonar which captures pictures of the riverbed to locate the bodies. It will focus on the 15-km downstream stretch of the river from the Larji hydropower project dam to the Pandoh dam, they said.
In the first four days of the operation, eight bodies were recovered, most of them either trapped under the rocks or buried in the riverbed silt within a 3 km radius of the accident spot at Thalot on the Chandigarh-Manali national highway 21.
Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister N. Chinna Rajappa has also reached the accident site to monitor the ongoing search operation on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Telangana Home Minister N. Narasimha Reddy, who is camping here since June 9, said he was satisfied with the search operation but the parents, who are having some hope of finding their children, are shattered.
Meanwhile, the State Electricity Board has decided to install high powered sirens at Larji Hydel project to avert such mishaps in the future. The non-audibility of hooters from the Larji project is also being put forward as one of the main reasons for Sunday's mishap.