Hyderabad: The survivors of the mishap allege that the local police did not have the contact number of the dam officials who could have been contacted to shut the gates of the dam.
Moreover, the incident took place at around 6.30 pm and the rescue team arrived around 9.30 pm.
Since the water was extremely cold and carrying out rescue operations with such poor visibility was risky, the search only got underway at 5 am the next day.
The students said that if the rescue team had started searching that night, many of the missing would have been found.
The search operations are being conducted by over 550 personnel over a stretch of 15 km. The water level here has now been reduced by four feet. The rescuers include special divers of the army.
“It took us time to get in touch with the regional police who didn’t have the contact number of the dam authorities. If they had, the gates could have been immediately closed,” said one of the survivors.
That apart, either the dam officials or the locals should have alerted us when the gates were opened, one of the survivors said.
They added that some students were washed away due to the current, while three others were swept away when trying to rescue those trapped.
