Mandi: The water level in the Beas river was lowered last morning for the first time to locate the bodies of 16 missing students and one tour operator who were washed away in strong currents last week, rescue officials said. But no bodies could be traced for the second consecutive day.
In a massive operation, more than 550 rescue workers continued their search for the sixth day. Over 50 divers from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Army, Navy and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police are involved in the search operation. Fifteen divers from Hyderabad joined in yesterday.
“The water level in the three-km river stretch near the accident spot was minimised at the lowest ebb for almost two hours by controlling inflow into it, but no major success has been achieved,” Jaideep Singh, commanding officer of NDRF, said.
He said the focus of yesterday’s operation was to locate bodies trapped under boulders. “Now we are sure, at least 95 percent, that the bodies are no more trapped in this three-km area.”
The rescuers will todya deploy side scan sonar, which can capture pictures of the riverbed, to locate the bodies. It will focus on the 15-km stretch of the river downstream, from the Larji hydropower project dam to Pandoh dam, Singh added.
Official sources said an unmanned aerial vehicle, deployed by the NDRF to locate the bodies, couldn’t operate fully due to some flaws in the satellite link.
In the first four days of the operation, eight bodies were recovered, most of them either trapped under rocks or buried in the riverbed silt within a three-km radius of the accident spot at Thalaut, on the Chandigarh-Manali National Highway 21 in Mandi district.
About 25 parents and family members of the missing students, who are camping here since Monday, are losing hope of getting the bodies of their kin.
Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister N Chinna Rajappa yesterday reached the mishap site to monitor the search operation.
“Our divers are basically facing the problem of poor visibility. The riverbed is full of mud and silt. There are also big boulders and rocks. It’s only through feeling that they are recognising objects lying beneath,” National Disaster Management Authority vice chairman M Shashidhar Reddy said.
IANS
