SHIRUR (UTTARA KANNADA): On the second day of the third phase of rescue operations at Shirur to look out for missing people, including Kerala truck driver Arjun, the rescue team on Saturday found parts of a heavy vehicle which was buried in the Gangavalli river. However, sources said it was a gas tanker’s parts, not Arjun’s truck.
On Friday, a dredger and barge were pressed into service immediately after their arrival at Shirur in Ankola taluk where the landslide occurred. The search operations began with divers from the Navy and SDRF and the Uttara Kannada police participating in it.
The dredger belonging to the Deep Dredger Company was brought onto the river along with a crane-mounted barge where it started dredging the four locations shown by Indian Navy divers and experts who pointed out to these locations using the state-of-the-art technology.
In addition to the Navy and the SDRF authorities, private divers led by Eshwar Malpe too joined the search operation in the morning. “They searched at all the important locations and managed to find two wheels, steering and other parts belonging to a heavy vehicle. These parts belong to a gas tanker, while the search is on for the truck and driver Arjun,” M Narayan, Superintendent of Police, Uttara Kannada, told Express.
The divers who came out empty-handed on Friday managed to find the parts of the heavy vehicle on Saturday afternoon and finally managed to excavate the wheels and the steering. The day’s operations concluded in the evening hours and will resume on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, the dredging, according to the district administration, will continue for the next eight days.
According to sources, the dredging will cost a whopping Rs 90 lakh. The dredging and the other rescue operations will be monitored by the Port Department, Karwar. The rescue operations aim at finding three missing people, Jaganath, Lokesh and Arjun, who have gone missing since July 16, when the landslide occurred. SP Uttara Kannada, Narayan and others were stationed at the spot.
