Inclement weather on Wednesday halted search operations to trace a missing truck and its driver at the landslip site in Uttara Kannada being carried out jointly by the district administration and various government agencies.
The search operations seemed to have reached the final stages.
Although experts in radar technology from a private agency reached the landslip site near Shirur by evening, heavy downpour spoilt the chances of a coordinated effort planned to be carried out with the help of helicopters from the Coast Guard and Navy personnel.
By that time, it was confirmed that a heavy metal body was under water around 30 m from the riverbank.
As rain intensified, the experts held a discussion with all those involved in the operations and decided to put them off to Thursday morning.
To resume today
Deputy Commissioner Lakshmi Priya, Superintendent of Police Narayan and Ankola MLA Satish Sail, who have been monitoring the operations from day one, told the media that the operations will resume on Thursday morning.
They said that they as any radiation will affect the assessment of the location, those with mobile handsets will not be allowed near the site and they themselves will hold media briefings on the progress of the rescue work.
Earlier in the day, they expressed the confidence of a positive outcome by evening, which, however, did not materialise because of rainfall.
“With the help of my friend in NASA in the U.S., I was able to get location coordinates of the missing truck which then were sent to ISRO for further confirmation”Narayan,Superintendent of Police
NASA help
Earlier in the day, Mr. Narayan told The Hindu that with the help of his friend in NASA in the U.S., he was able to get the location coordinates which were subsequently sent to ISRO for further confirmation.
Through satellite images, they were able to confirm the presence of a heavy metal body under water.
Subsequently, the data was further put to scrutiny to ascertain the possible location of the buried truck.
“A deep penetrating radar from Noida is being brought to the site and on its arrival, a Coast Guard helicopter will take them over the river to pinpoint the exact location. Once that is done, Navy personnel will fix boundaries for the operations to be carried out and divers will go under water to search for the body of the driver which is likely to be stuck in the cabin of the truck,” Mr. Narayan said.
Ms. Lakshmi Priya expressed the confidence about a positive outcome by the end of the day if the weather remained congenial.
MLAs at site
Mr. Satish Sail and Manjeshwar (Kerala) MLA A.K.M Ashraf, who have been camping in the area, are also confident of a positive outcome.
Mr. Ashraf expressed the satisfaction over the progress of the relief operations. Had it not been for the clamour over the GPS location of the truck being buried under the rubble, these operations would have probably begun three days earlier, he said.
