Engineer stuck 80-ft under soil during road work in Jalandhar district

Aparna Banerji

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Kartarpur, August 13

A 40-year-old technical engineer from Jind (Haryana), Suresh Kumar, was stuck under 80 feet of soil as the earth caved in during the construction on the Kartarpur-Kapurthala stretch of the Delhi-Katra Expressway on Saturday evening.

At the time of going to press, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the state police teams had been making efforts for over 24 hours to retrieve the trapped engineer at Basrampur village near Kartarpur.

As many as 200 personnel of the NDRF and the police and 10 JCB machines and other equipment have been pressed into service in the rescue operation, which began on 8 pm on Saturday.

Having an experience of more than 20 years in the field, Suresh Kumar along with colleague Pawan had gone down an excavated site to inspect a fault in an earth digger, which had stopped functioning, when the earth caved in. While Pawan came out safely, Suresh was trapped.

On being informed by the administration, family members of the trapped engineer reached the site.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Jasbir Singh said, “The rescue operation has been on since yesterday. We expect positive results shortly. The JCB machines have dug up to almost 80 feet. Due to loose soil, the earth is caving in repeatedly making the rescue operation complicated.”

“The engineer was buried more than 70 feet and the diameter is only around one and a half metre so the rescue is not easy,” he added.

Vipin Sharma, Regional Officer, NHAI, Chandigarh, said, “During piling work on the Jammu-Katra Expressway, a machine was stuck. Two experts were sent, equipped with oxygen cylinder, to secure the stuck portion of the machine. While the machine was being brought back, soil fell on one of them. There is a pond on the other side. We are draining the water with pumps to speed up the rescue work.”

Suresh Kumar’s nephew Ravinder, who arrived from Jind today, said, “He has been abandoned by his company and left to die.”

Had oxygen cylinder

Equipped with oxygen cylinder, engineer Suresh Kumar along with his colleague Pawan had gone down an excavated site to inspect a fault in an earth digger which had stopped functioning. The earth caved in. While Pawan came out safely, Suresh got trapped.