Two bodies found from NEEPCO hydro power project pump room

Bodies of two of the four persons who were feared trapped inside a pump house of state- run NEEPCO were found on Monday, two weeks after the water pipelines of Kopili Hydro electric project in Assam's Dima Hasao district burst, a senior police official said. The two bodies were found from the dewatered G-2 (ground minus 2) room of the project by the NDRF and SDRF personnel, Dima Hasao superintendent of police Shreejit T said.

One of the bodies was identified as that of Joysing Tisso(60) but the other is yet to be identified, he said. The bodies have been send to Umrangso Hospital for post mortem examination, officials said.

The four men, all employees of NEEPCO, had gone missing when two water pipelines of the 275 MW hydro electric project at Umrangsao burst on October 7. 100 rescue personnel, including a National Disaster Response Force team, two teams of the State Disaster Response Force and fire and emergency service personnel are working round the clock to find the other missing persons," said a senior official of the Assam Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).

He said, Till today the rescue personnel were unable to reach the basement of G minus-2 (G-2) as the underground building is filled with mud and the rescuers believe that will be filled with water," the official said. "The condition is believed to be the worst from the depth of 17 m to 90 m and from G-2 room to G-1 room. The whole building is filled with mud and there is no technology to detect any body in such a condition, he said.

The official said that pumping of water cannot be taken up due to the presence of large amount of submerged debris and rubble. Also due to the lack of space it has become difficult to work inside the building. "So from now onwards rescue work is to be done only manually to clear the 9-12 feet mud, he added.

Several manholes have also gone under water and the building is not safe so expert opinion will be required, the official said. It will take more than eight months to clear the mud from it, he added.

In the worst disaster in a hydro-electric project in Assam, two pipelines had burst at around 4 am on October 7 when repairing works were on, North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) officials said. It took the NDRF and SDRF more than a week to begin rescue operations as they had to wait for the water level to decrease, the ASDMA official said.

Ninety per cent machinery of the project was damaged in the disaster, which created a water fountain that rose to several feet into the sky, the NEEPCO officials said. The SP said hundreds of NEEPCO workers are manually digging the site where around five excavators have been deployed to dig out the mud.

A team of Assam Rifles and Assam Police Battalion personnel are camping at the site to assist the rescue team and also safeguard vital installations of the project, he added. A high-level team from Delhi, including NEEPCO chairman and managing director Vinod Kumar Singh, had visited the site to assess the situation.

The cause of the disaster could be water acidity that affected the pipeline. The water pipeline was repaired in 2018 and the blast took place on the same portion, the NEEPCO sources said.

Located on Kopili river, the 275 MW Kopili Hydro Electric Project was the maiden venture of NEEPCO when it came into existence in 1976..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)