Chamoli, Aug 19:
The bodies of the two workers who had gone missing following a tunnel accident in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district (Pipalkoti) last week were recovered on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from the incident to 10, officials said.
They said with this, the search and rescue operation, conducted on a war-footing by various agencies following the accident on the evening of August 13 in Tehri Hydro Development Corporation’s (THDC) Vishnugad-Pipalkoti hydroelectric project tunnel under construction, has also concluded.
According to the officials, the bodies recovered from the tunnel have been identified as 31-year-old Lukas Topno from Jharkhand’s Khunti district and Chetan Poyam from Chhattisgarh.
With the recovery of two more bodies, the death toll in the accident, caused by a landslide that filled the tunnel with debris and water, has risen to 10. Out of 22 people who were caught in the three-kilometre tunnel when a landslide led to debris and water flooding, 12 were rescued with injuries.