Manali, Jun 11 (Bhaskar News): An ill-fated group of students of a Hyderabad-based engineering college, merrily taking photos on the banks of the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh, was washed away in the swirling waters which suddenly rose several feet on Sunday evening.
24 students were caught unaware when hundreds of cusecs of water was discharged from Larji Hydro Power Project's reservoir at around 6pm on Sunday, leading to the bizarre tragedy. Five bodies have been recovered so far.
Pandoh dam, which is approximately 15km downtream from the accident spot, released water without any siren or caution - taking along with it 24 students of Hyderabad-based VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology. The students, along with faculty members of the college, were on an excursion trip to Manali when on their way they decided to get down and walk the river bank to take pictures.
A team comprising 84 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) men and 10 divers carried out a search operation in the turbulent Beas river from the accident spot at Thalaut and Pandoh dam. They were able to recover bodies of five people from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district. The remaining bodies are yet to be found.
The five bodies that were recovered and all the survivors were flown to Hyderabad by an Air India flight on Monday night. Families of missing students have decided to stay back.
Following the tragic incident, the Himachal government launched the biggest-ever rescue operation to retrieve the bodies. Chief minister Virbhadra Singh ordered an inquiry by the Mandi divisional commissioner into the incident. Expert divers of NDRF, ITBP, and Bhakra Beas Management Board were engaged to find survivors.
The Himachal Pradesh high court said that it was a case of grave negligence, the Virbhadra Singh government announced immediate relief of Rs. 1.50 lakh to the next of kin of the engineering college students who were washed away.