High-tech equipment fails to locate missing bodies in Beas

The massive search operations to trace bodies of Hyderabad engineering students yielded no result on Sunday, even as high-tech echo sounder device and remote sensing equipments were used to scan the Beas riverbed. The search operation began at 6am.

The rescue teams deployed a sides can SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) to capture the images of the riverbed.

“The device showed good images but no bodies could be located,” said Jaideep Singh, commandant national disaster response force (NDRF), adding, the bodies were probably buried under thick layer of silt.

Lt Comnd of Indian Navy Hydrographers Bhoj Raj and PO Ratheesh scanned a stretch of 10 km from Pandoh Dam to the upstream using the device. The device was able to locate two carcasses but they were of some animals.

The search operation was carried out in two phases, scanning 5 km stretch each time. The rescue teams involving over 600 personnel of NDRF, Shastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indo- Tibet Border Police (ITBP), Navy, Army and state police had recovered eight bodies in the first four days of the search operation.

However, there is no significant headway since then as no bodies have been traced in the last three days. A special search operation to trace the bodies by drying up the Beas, by closing the sluice gates of Larji and Parbati- III power project on Saturday, also proved unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, a seven members team of Banglore- based Geokno India Private Ltd, led by manager Sunder Raj, also joined the search operation and had deployed its underwater light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to trace the bodies.

The team has scanned more than 5-km stretch from Pandoh reservoir to upstream to get the images of the riverbed and the data collected would be analysed later.

At least 25 persons, including students of Hyderabadbased engineering college were swept away in the Beas River at Thalout near Mandi on June 8.

Monday 16 June 2014

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