Hyderabad: Hi-tech devices like side scan sonar and light detection and ranging equipment have failed to locate the missing bodies of the students at the Beas River mishap site in Mandi in Himachal Pradesh.
Bodies generally float to the surface after 11 days and the bereaved parents and the authorities will now have to wait until then.
AP home minister Mr N. Chinna Rajappa said, “The rescue teams couldn’t retrieve bodies on Sunday too despite using hi-tech scanning equipment. Experts are saying that the bodies will float in the water after 11 days. The bodies are said to be stuck in the silt and mud. AP Government has done its best to help the parents and we have announced ex-gratia payment too.”
Sixteen students and a tour guide are still missing. On Sunday morning experts equipped with side scan sonar scanned the Pandoh dam area.
Telangana home minister N. Narasimha Reddy who has been camping at the site since the mishap took place said, “We can now go in for possibility of opening the gates of the Pandoh dam drastically to reduce the water level in the reservoir to facilitate sighting of the bodies. Any decision in this regard will be taken with the consent of the parents.”
He added that some parents have expressed apprehension that the bodies might be washed further downstream if the Pandoh dam gates are opened. Officials said that the reservoir is 30 to 50 feet deep.
Mr Reddy said the VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology should have arranged to fly the parents of the missing students to the site.
He announced a reward for people who fish out bodies of the missing students and said the government will give Rs 15,000 and appreciation letter to those who retrieve the bodies.
While the intense search is on with the help of hi tech equipments, the rescue operators are yet to find out the missing bodies apart from the eight bodies those were fished out earlier.
