Ramban,21-May; The rescue team recovered bodies of two more labourers from Under-construction tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway in Ramban district which collapsed late on Thursday night while search for other missing persons continues.Officials confirmed that two more bodies were recovered today by the rescue team from debris after an hours—long joint rescue operation launched immediately by police and the Army.“Fourth body retrieved and being shifted to District Hospital Ramban. The operation continuing. NH44 through for vehicular traffic, ” Deputy Commissioner Ramban, Mussarat Islam said in a tweet.“The chances of survival of the trapped persons are less as the debris is heavy and has covered all the surrounding area. However, a joint rescue operation was launched immediately after a portion of the tunnel at Khoni nallah collapsed during the night. Several machines and vehicles parked on the front side of the tunnel suffered damage”, another official said.One of the deceased, whose body was found from the debris yesterday, has been identified as Sudhir Roy (31), son of Manik Chandra Roy of West Bengal. Those missing are Jadav Roy (23), Gautam Roy (22), Dipak Roy (33) and Parimal Roy (38), all from West Bengal, Shiva Chouhan (26) from Assam, Nepali citizens Nawaraj Chowdhury (26) and Khushi Ram (25), and Jammu and Kashmir residents Muzaffar (38) and Israt (30), officials said.All of them were employed by a company tasked with auditing the tunnel of T3 on the highway near Khooni Nallah In Jammu and Kashmir’s Ramban district, when it caved in at the start of the work at around 10.15 pm on Thursday (May 19).Earlier, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar and Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Jammu, Mukesh Singh visited the incident site, while Lt Governor Manoj Sinha monitored the situation from a control room and was briefed about intermittent shooting stones, which have been obstructing the rescue operation..(CNS)
