Chamoli: The Rishiganga power project has suffered heavy damage due to the glacier burst on Sunday in Tapovan area of Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. Along with this, a site of NTPC has also been affected. Many people are feared trapped in both disaster affected sites. Meanwhile, bodies of three people have been found in the site of Tapovan NTPC. Relief and rescue work is going on for the workers working at the project site. So far eight 9 have been recovered.
Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Om Prakash said that the NDRF team has marched while the ITBP and SDRF teams have reached. When asked about the number of casualties in the devastation, he said that 100 to 150 people are feared to be dead.
A total of 16 people who were trapped in Tapovan Dam are being shifted to safer places by the police, said Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) said that there was some cloudburst or breaching of the reservoir which resulted in the flooding in Dhauliganga — one of the six source streams of the Ganges river. The 85 km river meets the Alaknanda River at Vishnuprayag at the base of Joshimath mountain in Uttarakhand.
The ITBP said that the flash flood occurred in Rishi Ganga at around 10.45 a.m. due to a glacier falling into it and exponentially increasing the volume of water. Due to this, the Rishi Ganga hydro project was completely devastated, it said.
Several labourers working at the Rishi Ganga hydroelectric power project were feared missing after a glacier broke. A dam of the Tapovan power project was breached and feared to have been washed away.
