As massive operation inentsified to reach about 30 people trapped inside tunnel began after a flash flood in Chamoli district a week ago, rescue teams on Sunday recovered 12 more bodies, including the first ones to be pulled out from the sludge-choked Tapovan tunnel.
Five bodies were recovered from the Tapovan power project tunnel, six from Raini upstream and one from the riverbank in Rudraprayag, taking the confirmed death toll in the Uttarakhand disaster to 50. Officials said 154 people still remain missing after the February 7 devastation, possibly triggered by an avalanche in the upper reaches of the Alaknanda river system.
A surge of water in Dhauliganga and Rishiganga rivers had ripped through two hydel projects. Bodies of victims were being found at different locations by the river over the past week, but rescuers had so far failed to reach anyone — dead or alive — in the tunnel network at the National Thermal Power Corporation’s 520 MW Tapovan-Vishnugad project.
Monday, 15 February 2021 | PNS | Tapovan/Dehradun
