Rourkela: Rescue teams were hard at work Monday to trace and rescue four youths found lost in the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP)’s disposal tunnel, while one body has been recovered. The youths had gone in there to steal discarded scrap from the plant a week ago.
The teams of the Rourkela police, the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), firefighters, CISF and RSP’s technical team were involved in the operations.
Nine youths from Rourkela’s Shitalpada area had entered the RSP waste outlet tunnel to steal scrap metals June 3. Four of them got stuck inside the sewage discharge tunnel while returning with the scrap steel. In a bid to rescue them, two more youths went inside the tunnel. One of them got stuck while another managed to eject himself, but in a critical condition.
The matter came to light Friday night when a missing youth’s wife lodged a complaint with the Uditnagar police.
Union steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh Dumerkhan along with senior officials of the RSP were expected to reach the spot later in the day to take stock of the situation.
“My brother was drunk when he entered the tunnel. I request the administration to get him back safe,” pleaded local resident Manju.
“We have been able to recover one body. The place is dangerous to go in, even for the rescue team with safety equipment. We have requested the higher officials to get their technical team to assist us understand the plan of the tunnel so that efforts can be expedited to recover the other trapped youths,” said a police official.
Locals fear the trapped youths might already have suffocated themselves to death inside the tunnel.
PNN
