Navy divers, Indian army, NDRF, SDRF teams search for five missing in Assam river
Guwahati, Sept 4 (IBNS) : The Indian Navy’s deep-sea divers, the Army, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are engaged in a search and rescue operation for five members of a family, who went missing after their car plunged into Dikhow river in upper Assam’s Sivasagar district on September 1 evening.
According to reports, an eight-member diving team with equipment from the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam have been in the operation in Sivasagar town. They have been joined by the members of the Army, SDRF and NDRF. However, the vehicle has not been located so far.
The incident took place in the Dikhowmukh area near Gaurisagar in the upper Assam’s district when the family was travelling from Guwahati to Sivasagar and their speeding Swift Dezire lost control and fell into the Dikhow.
The five members of the family are – Haren Bora, his mother Phunu Bora, wife Ponou and two daughters- Simpi and Munmi.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is supervising the rescue operation. He has spoken to the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the search and rescue operation.
The CM has also taken up the matter with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Defence Ministry for help.
Meanwhile, two boats of Inland Water Transport (IWT) have been kept as standby.
Though the operation started on Sunday morning, the strong undercurrent in the swollen Dikhow with muddy water blocking vision under water has been the main obstacle to success.
Divers are going as deep as 40 ft in some areas and a total of 10 boats have been pressed into service.
Three teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), six teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), one each from Dibrugarh and Sivasagar and two teams each from Jorhat and Golaghat have been pressed into the search and rescue operation, apart from one team from the Para Commando of the Indian Army.
A total of 100 rescue personnel, including 32 deep divers, are engaged in the search and rescue operation.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
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