Six dead, 2 missing after water, debris enter under-construction tunnel in U'khand

In a tragic incident in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, seven workers lost their lives and one remains missing after a landslide triggered a collapse in an under-construction tunnel. The disaster unfolded at a 2-km-long Tail Race Tunnel, being built by Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), in Mayapur of Pipalkoti, Chamoli district. The incident occurred around 7.05pm on Thursday evening as workers were on their shift, ranging from 2pm to 10pm.

The landslide created a cavity approximately 1.4km inside the tunnel, through which a mix of slush and water rushed, trapping the workers. Fourteen workers were successfully rescued and admitted to Gopeshwar hospital, while seven have tragically died and one remains unaccounted for. The deceased workers' names are Pradeep Singh Panwar (31) from Tehri, Mukesh from Urgam in Chamoli, Dultam Sharma from Bihar, Vijay (28) from Jharkhand, Jitendra Kumar (28) from Jharkhand, Lokeshwar, and Muneshwar. The residence details of Lokeshwar and Muneshwar are yet to be ascertained.

Rescue operations were swiftly launched after the incident. The District Incident Response Force, local police, Central Industrial Security Force, as well as Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, National Disaster Response Force, and State Disaster Response Force personnel were deployed to the scene. Pumps were utilized to drain the water from the cavity. The ongoing search operation aims to locate the remaining unaccounted worker.