India, Aug. 18 -- The bodies of the two workers who had gone missing following a tunnel accident in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district (Pipalkoti) last week were recovered on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from the incident to 10, officials said. They said with this, the search and rescue operation, conducted on a war-footing by various agencies following the accident on the evening of August 13 in Tehri Hydro Development Corporation's (THDC) Vishnugad-Pipalkoti hydroelectric project tunnel under construction, has also concluded. According to the officials, the bodies recovered from the tunnel have been identified as 31-year-old Lukas Topno from Jharkhand's Khunti district and Chetan Poyam from Chhattisgarh. Also Read - Meta more cautious on CSAM after unequivocal govt message; action visible: IT Ministry sources Advertisement With the recovery of two more bodies, the death toll in the accident, caused by a landslide that filled the tunnel with debris and water, has risen to 10. Out of 22 people who were caught in the three-kilometre tunnel when a landslide led to debris and water flooding, 12 were rescued with injuries. The officials said that the search and rescue operation, which had been underway for the past six days in the Pipalkoti tunnel, has now concluded. Following the incident, joint teams comprising the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Army, police and other agencies had been continuously conducting relief and rescue operations. Also Read - Twisha Sharma died by suicidal hanging: AIIMS medical board The officials said that all the teams completed the operation through mutual coordination, amidst significant slush and adverse conditions inside the tunnel. They said the debris, sludge and water accumulated in the tunnel were cleared out by adhering to safety standards and utilising available resources, suction pumps and other equipment to facilitate the movement of rescue teams and enable a search across all potential locations. A small cavity formed by land subsidence in the main tunnel of the National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC) 520-MW Tapovan-Vishnugad hydroelectric project, located in the Tapovan-Jyotirmath area of Chamoli district, is being filled. Also Read - 8 labourers killed, 32 injured as pickup truck collides with dumper in MP's Bhind According to NTPC officials, water began leaking from a pit that formed on August 15. Consequently, as a precautionary measure, all workers were immediately evacuated and excavation work was halted. They said that technical experts are working to fill the pit and tunnel construction will resume only after this task is completed. Earlier, Chamoli District Information Officer Dheeraj Karki told PTI that three of the five JCB machines trapped inside the tunnel during the accident have been retrieved, which accelerated the search for the missing workers. He said that the remaining two machines, currently trapped in the debris, would also be extracted soon.
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