Six dead, 14 injured after water and debris enter Uttarakhand hydropower tunnel

Six workers were killed and 14 others injured after water and debris surged into an under-construction tunnel at a hydroelectric project in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Thursday, officials said.

Preliminary reports indicated that 22 workers were trapped inside the tunnel when the incident occurred. Rescue teams brought out 20 workers, of whom six were declared dead. The remaining 14 were injured and admitted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

The status of the other two workers was not immediately known, and rescue operations remained under way. The accident took place at Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Limited’s hydroelectric project in the Pipalkoti area.

Uttarakhand chief secretary Anand Vardhan said initial reports suggested that several workers had become trapped after water and debris entered the project tunnel.

Teams from the police, State Disaster Response Force and Central Industrial Security Force were deployed at the site. Personnel from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the Army also joined the operation, while a National Disaster Response Force team from Rudraprayag was sent to Pipalkoti.

Chamoli district magistrate Gaurav Kumar reached the site to supervise the rescue and relief efforts.

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed concern over the accident and instructed all agencies to conduct the operation on a war footing.

Disaster management and rehabilitation secretary Vinod Kumar Suman said emergency operation centres were closely monitoring the situation and that additional teams would be deployed if required.

With agency inputs