Daijiworld Media Network – Mahisagar
Mahisagar, Sep 5: Five workers are feared drowned after gushing water from the Mahi river entered the premises of a hydro power plant near Lunawada town in Gujarat’s Mahisagar district, officials said on Friday.
The incident occurred around 3 pm on Thursday at Dolatpura when 15 workers had entered a large well of the hydro power plant for maintenance. “With discharge from the Kadana dam on the upstream, water suddenly entered the well while the workers were inside. Ten workers managed to escape, but five went missing,” said district superintendent of police (SP) Safin Hasan.
A massive multi-agency rescue operation was immediately launched, but even after 24 hours there was no trace of the missing workers. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and fire brigades from Vadodara and Mahisagar are engaged in the operation.
“We have called in an underwater search vehicle from Vadodara because the tank is deep and visibility is almost zero due to the presence of oil and grease in the water,” SP Hasan added.
Rescue operations are still underway.