Uttarakhand flash flood: NTPC counters state govt, says offered ‘all relevant inputs’ to rescue staff officers

NTPC Ltd has stated it had offered “all relevant technical inputs” to rescue staff officers on Sunday itself and that, primarily based on this info, 12 employees had been rescued on the identical day itself. The firm’s assertion comes a day after Uttarakhand authorities stated officers of the facility utility had informed rescue groups that the lacking employees they had been trying to find had been in a distinct location to the place they’d been digging.
However, the corporate claims that the operations had been at all times geared toward accessing the best location. According to NTPC, the lacking employees had been working within the Silt Flushing Tunnel (SFT) of Tapovan Vishnugad under-construction hydropower plant for concrete lining on the time of the flash floods within the area Sunday.
“It is the same tunnel called (the) Silt Flushing Tunnel (SFT). As the progress for accessing SFT through (the) Intake Adit Tunnel is taking some time, efforts are also being made parallel to access the SFT by drilling a vertical hole from (the) Intake Adit Tunnel,” stated an NTPC spokesperson, in response to queries by The Indian Express. “From the very first day of (the) rescue operation, all drawings and relevant information were shared with the rescue teams by NTPC team and engineers at site,” the spokesperson stated. The spokesperson added that it was on the premise of the data offered by NTPC that 12 employees had been rescued from the SFT outfall tunnel within the night of the identical day.
However, Garhwal Commissioner Ravinath Raman informed The Indian Express on Wednesday that rescue groups had been informed of the chance of round 34 labourers being trapped 180 metres “inside the Intake Adit Tunnel” of the plant. This prompted the groups to dig “in that direction,” he had stated, including that it was solely on Wednesday that NTPC authorities had knowledgeable them that the final identified worksite of the labourers was the SFT.

District authorities and rescue officers informed The Indian Express on Wednesday that the “incorrect” info might show a setback to hopes of discovering survivors.
The plant’s SFT is 12 metres beneath the Intake Adit Tunnel. “With this, the strategy of going up to 180 metres has been changed. Drilling will be done in the SFT and lights with cameras will be lowered into the area,” Raman had stated.
“There was no work going on in the Intake Adit Tunnel, therefore there is least possibilities of the workers trapped in (the) Intake Adit Tunnel,” stated NTPC’s spokesperson.
At the identical time, the precise location of the employees within the SFT “can’t be pinpointed as they may by all probability have rushed away within the tunnel when water/mud started ingress within (the) Tunnel to save themselves,” stated the spokesperson.
NTPC has ascertained the “likely location” of the lacking employees primarily based on stories from their contracting companies as per the work deployment made on the day of the incident.