Guwahati (Assam): After almost 14 days of the rescue operation, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team on Monday recovered two bodies out of the four employees, who went missing after the water tunnel burst at the NEEPCO-run Kopili Hydel Project at Umrangso in Assam’s Dima Hasao district,
The bodies were retrieved at around 11:45 AM from the G2 floor of the project site.
The bodies have been identified as that of missing project junior engineers Robert John Negamalai (39) and Joy Sing Tisso (60).
The bodies have been handed over to OC Umrangso Police Station.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Second-in-command of NDRF RS Gill termed it as a very challenging and risky rescue operation.
"It is a very challenging operation from the security point of view. We had to be extra cautious as there were many electic wires around. Finally, we are successful in recovering two bodies and we are quite hopeful that other bodies will also be recovered soon. When we had initially started our rescue operation, we faced numerous problems but district administration as well as the police provided us security and we were able to start the rescue operation," said Gill.
Efforts are underway to locate the other two missing employees who are also feared dead.
It is to be noted that four employees of NEEPCO had gone missing after the explosion at the water tunnel carrying water from the reservoir to the main plant. The burst led to a catastrophic-like situation with water inundating the pump house and flooding many areas of the plant site along with nearby localities.
NEEPCO and district administration officials incidentally had to wait for the water level to recede before operations to locate and rescue the missing employees were taken up.
Also Read: No trace of bodies at NEEPCO burst site at Kopili hydropower station
