Sutlej does not return the jawans

SHIMLA: After more than 36 hours of rescue operations to trace the bodies of 34 army jawans who drowned in the raging waters of the Sutlej river in Kinnaur district on Thursday, the only success was a body which was spotted near Pawari, about 120 km from Shimla.

Till late evening it was not officially ascertained if the body was that of a jawan engaged on the construction of the jinxed Kharo bridge. The entire rescue operation, launched jointly by the army and civil authorities, was scuttled by inclement weather and the turbulent river, which provided no chance of spotting any of the drowned persons, including Lt Gen Amarjit Singh and an army captain.

The 60-metre-long Bailey bridge, being constructed by the 18th Engineers Regiment, was scheduled to be opened to public on Friday. The entire team of senior army officers had come to inspect last-minute operations on the bridge when the tragedy struck suddenly.
A technical snag in the construction of the bridge is officially stated to be the cause of its collapse.

"Either a wood plank installed on the bridge caved in, or maybe some of the nuts and bolts were not rightly fixed," said Kinnaur deputy commissioner Amandeep Garg, speculating on the cause of the collapse.

Considered to be a lifeline between the Kinnaur valley and rest of the country, this is the fourth time that the bridge has collapsed in the last five years. The bridge last caved in last June after the Pareechu Lake’s banks were breached due to flash floods.

The army’s efforts to trace the bodies were frustrated by the hostile ecological conditions. Besides the intermittent rains, the muddy waters of the river made it difficult for the hovering helicopters and rafting teams to trace any of the drowned jawans.

Himachal Pradesh Principal Secretary (Rehabilitation) Subhash Negi, who presided over a high-level meeting of officials in Kinnaur to review the rescue operations, told DNA that at this stage there was no hope for the recovery of bodies.

He said three rescue teams had been constituted to hunt for the bodies. They would cover a distance of about 120 km between Kharo village and Nathpa town, where the Nathpa Jakhri Power project is installed.

It is hoped that the bodies will not have crossed the dam site.  Negi said the rescue operations would be conducted for at least one week. The army has put up a rescue net short of Rampur town to trap the bodies. Government announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 50,000 each to the tragedy-struck families.