M A I N   N E W S

13 dead in Tehri dam mishap
Swati Vashishtha
Tribune News Service

Tehri, August 3
In a major mishap in the T3 tunnel near the 2400 MW Tehri dam, many labourers were buried alive, while at least 10 were injured, late on Monday night. Even as 13 bodies had been recovered, there is no clear estimate of those stranded and feared dead. While the district officials said there could be 80 to 85 labourers working at the site of the accident, the labourers said there were over 100 workers on the night shift. Fifty labourers were rescued from the tunnel.

Three of the 10 labourers who sustained serious injuries were sent to Jolly Grant Hospital in Dehradun while the others were sent to the JP Hospital in Tehri, official sources said. The mishap occurred when incessant rains in the region led to a mudslide and a portion of the tunnel T3 collapsed under the debris. The debris slid into the tunnel leaving many of the labourers working in the tunnel buried, injured and stranded.