Utrakhand tragedy: Kashmiri Engineer among the 170 missing people

An Engineer from Kashmir valley who was working in a power project in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district has been missing since the bursting of a glacier on Sunday.

Among the missing persons, there is a Project Engineer from Kashmir Valley. The friends of the missing Project Engineer Basharat Ahmed Zargar, a resident of Soura Srinagar told news agency KNT that since the bursting of the glacier, the Kashmiri Engineer is untraceable as his cell phone is switched off.

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“We pray to Almighty God that he is fine and safe,” they said. The family members sought help from Jammu Kashmir Government and appealed it to help them in tracing him out.

Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar has said that more than 150 people are missing in the glacier accident.

He said, "There is nothing to panic. The Rainy power project was completely washed away in the floods caused by the glacier burst yesterday. This has caused huge destruction in Tapovan. 32 people are missing from the site of the first project and 121 from the place of the second project.

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It is being told that 35-40 feet of mud has been filled in the tunnel in which 35 people are trapped, which is making the rescue work difficult.

However The Air Force has said that the air relief and rescue operations have been resumed after the Uttarakhand glacier accident. Mi-17 and Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) are sending rescue teams from Dehradun to Joshimath.

According to officials, 11 bodies have been recovered so far while 170 people are missing.

ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey told news agency ANI, "We have stepped up the search operation for the second tunnel, there are reported about 30 people trapped. 300 ITBP jawans are busy clearing the tunnel so that people Can be evacuated. According to the local administration, 170 people are missing in this disaster. "

The spokesman said that due to a lot of debris around the tunnels, rescue operations could be started only with the help of machines. He hoped that people could be evacuated safely from inside the tunnel.

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Teams of ITBP, NDRF and SDRAF are engaged in rescue work. In this tragedy, the Tapovan hydro-electric power dam, also known as the Rishiganga Project, has been completely destroyed.

Around ten o'clock on Sunday morning, water suddenly rose in some rivers in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.

In fact, landslides occurred due to the breaking of a part of the Nanda Devi glacier and the water level in the Dhauli Ganga, Rishi Ganga and Alaknanda rivers rose, causing panic.

This damaged the two hydropower projects of NTPC - Tapovan-Vishnugarh project and Rishi Ganga project there. The tunnels attached to these projects were flooded and workers were trapped there.

Many houses coming in the way of water were also washed away. There is a possibility of damage even in the low lying areas.

The administration immediately evacuated many villages and people were taken to safer areas. Due to rising water level, rescue work had to be stopped for some time last night.

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