Search operations in full swing to locate the missing persons
IMPHAL, July 4 (IANS/PTI): With four more bodies recovered on Monday, the death toll in the landslide at a railway construction site in Manipur’s Noney district increased to 46, including 30 Territorial Army soldiers, while search operations were underway in inclement weather to locate the 17 still missing, officials said.
The latest four bodies included three Territorial Army personnel and another person who was unidentified as the body was mutilated. The 46 dead also include railway workers.
Despite fresh landslides on Sunday and continuous hostile weather conditions, the intensive search operations by the Indian Army, the Assam Rifles, the Territorial Army, and the National and State Disaster Response Forces continued at the incident site at Tupul, district officials said.
Senior Army and disaster management officials are camping in ground zero supervising the rescue and recovery operations in the landslide-devastated mountainous Tupul, where around 80 persons, including Territorial Army personnel, were buried alive after the catastrophic mudslide that occurred on June 29.
The “Through Wall Radar” and search and rescue dogs were inducted to hasten the search operation, officials said. Relentless efforts to search for the remaining missing Territorial Army personnel and civilians would continue till the last individual is found, a defence spokesman said.
The district administration again on Monday cautioned civilians living in downstream areas of the Ijei River to evacuate due to the likelihood of breach in the dam created on the river by the landslide.
The Territorial Army soldiers were deployed at Tupul to provide security to the railway project in which many workers from Assam have been working.
The constructions of the railway infrastructure in Noney district are part of the Rs 14,320 crore broad gauge Jiribam-Imphal railway project, being executed by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), to connect the Manipur capital on the rail network by 2024.
After completion of the vital project, Imphal would be the fourth capital city in the Northeastern region to come under the railway map after Assam’s main city of Guwahati (adjoining capital Dispur), Agartala, and Naharlagun (adjacent to Arunachal’s capital city Itanagar).
Assam toll at 9, injured return home
MORIGAON, July 4 (PTI): The number of people from Assam who lost their lives in the Manipur landslide has risen to nine, while at least 12 others from the state are still missing following the tragic incident, an official said on Monday
The state government has compiled a list of 26 people from Assam present at the Tupul railway yard construction site in Noney district of neighbouring Manipur, when the landslide had occurred on June 29.
Altogether, 46 people have been confirmed dead so far, while more than 15 are still missing. Eighteen people were rescued alive from the incident site.
“We have names of 26 people from the state who were at that site. Among them, one was an Army jawan, and one a railway engineer; the rest were construction company workers,” Assam government spokesperson Pijush Hazarika told reporters here after returning from Manipur.
The state’s cabinet minister was camping in the bordering state since Saturday to oversee search and rescue operations.
Five workers from Assam who were rescued alive flew back home with Hazarika on Monday morning, and were being driven to their native place in Morigaon district by the administration.
Hazarika said the body of one of the workers, which was recovered from the debris on Sunday, is yet to be transported back, while mortal remains of the deceased from the state have already reached their native places and last rites completed.
“So far, as per our information, 12 people from the state are still missing. Various agencies are engaged in search and rescue operations at the accident site,” the minister added.
Meanwhile, Morigaon deputy commissioner P R Gharphalia said bodies of six people from the district have reached Kushtoli area under Laharighat block, from where they hailed.
“Two bodies reached this morning and the last rites were performed soon after. On Sunday, four more bodies had arrived and cremated the same evening,” he said.
