PATNA: National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) divers scoured for bodies in the Ganga at a distance of 20-25 km from the accident spot of the boat tragedy today but none was found keeping the toll at 24. Two teams of NDRF with 10 boats and 8 trained divers conducted the search operation in the river since morning but no body was found till evening, Vijay Sinha, Commandant of 9th battalion of NDRF said in a statement.
Sinha, who himself supervised the search operation throughout, said the divers scoured the river as far as 20 km to 25 km in the direction of the current to fish out any body post the Saturday boat capsize. He said the rescuers tried different exercises like running the boats at a high speed so that if there is any body buried at the bottom it would come to the surface due to the churning of water.
"But, despite the hectic search throughout the day no body in addition to the 24 already fished out was found," Sinha said. The search operation would continue tomorrow also. "We will continue with our search operation till district administration asks us to wind it up," he said. NDRF personnel were pressed into the search operation almost two hours after the boat tragedy on January 14 and fished out the bodies from the Ganga.