Deoghar (Jharkhand): The rescue operation in the Trikut cable car accident in the Deoghar district of Jharkhand was over on Tuesday afternoon after three harrowing days.
Three people died in the accident and during the rescue operation in which the Army, IAF, NDRF, and locals managed to get around 60 people to safety. At around 4 pm on Sunday, several cable cars were left dangling mid-air after a malfunction of the ropeway which saw trolley cars colliding. One person died in the initial accident while two fell to death, one each on Monday and Tuesday while being pulled up by helicopters. On Monday, the evacuation of tourists stranded in different ropeway trollies was put on hold during the night.
Earlier, on April 11, from 7.30 am onwards, a team of IAF Garuda commandos, along with MI-17 and MI-17 V5, were involved in carrying out airlifting of stranded tourists. In the afternoon, one tourist while he was being pulled up by the chopper had not fastened his safety belt and fell to death. On Tuesday, a woman lost her life in a similar fashion as she was being rescued by an IAF chopper.
Meanwhile, Union minister Nityanand Rai while expressing anguish over the Deoghar ropeway accident, said NDRF personnel, IAF teams and ITBF soldiers have been working continuously to evacuate people safely. The Central agencies have teamed up with the local administration for rescuing the trapped tourists in different cable cars of the Trikut ropeway. The rescue teams are providing food, medicines and other essential items to the stranded people. Despite the hospitable terrain, our forces belonging to IAF, ITBP, Army and others did a commendable job of rescuing people.
Deoghar District Magistrate (DM) Manjunath Bhajantri said, "The IAF rescue team provided food and water to the stranded tourists on the cable cars. Though, the target was to rescue people by the evening of April 11, but could not materialize. The demography of the Trikut hills is such that we faced hurdles to carry out rescue operations at night. On Tuesday morning, all the remaining stranded tourists were taken out of the cable cars safely."
On the other hand, a Garuda commando while carrying out a rescue operation was stuck in one of the cable cars. He was airdropped to a trolley, but as darkness descended, the choppers moved out of the evacuation site, leaving him stranded. The Garuda commando who was stuck in one of the cable cars was found to be motivating tourists during the night, said sources.
"We sought help from the NDRF personnel, including the Army, from Sunday evening (April 10) when the mishap took place. Responding to our SOS, the Central government ensured the deployment of Army and ITBP soldiers as well as Garuda commandos and IAF choppers, immediately. We got assistance in the rescue operation from the IAF team belonging to Kharagpur (West Bengal) Air Force Base and Ranchi (Jharkhand) Air Force Station," added the DM.
Expressing his grief over the incident Chief Minister Hemant Soren described it as "painful". He condoled the deaths in the incident and wished speedy recovery to those who were injured. Soren said that during the rescue operation he instructed the Chief Secretary and the DGP to be on high alert. Meanwhile, the Jharkhand High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the incident and instructed the Jharkhand Government to submit a report before it after investigating the matter in two weeks. The case will come up for hearing again on April 26. The court stated that the matter will be heard as a PIL. The issue was raised before the bench of Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad.
Read: Jharkhand ropeway accident: Three dead, 22 still trapped, operation halted till Tuesday morning
