GUWAHATI:
Three people were crushed to death after a tree uprooted by a flood caused by a water pipeline burst fell on them, at the Khandong Hydropower Station at Umrangso, in Assam’s Dima Hasao district, on March 26.
The bodies of the deceased, identified as Jayanta Hazarika, Anupam Saikia and Dimraj Johori, were later retrieved by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and sent to Haflong Civil Hospital for post mortem.
According to reports, Hazarika, Saikia and Johori, who worked as civil manager, assistant engineer and contractual employee, respectively, were on their way to close the “intake gate” of the dam to reduce the water level of the reservoir, when the incident happened.
Of the three North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd (NEEPCO) employees, two hail from Jorhat and Tinsukia districts, while the third person was from the Dima Hasao district.
The pipeline in question used to supply water to the hydropower project from a reservoir at Umrangso and the burst caused massive flooding in the water reservoir and surrounding areas of the power station, causing engineers and other employees working in the control room to flee from the site.
A NEEPCO official said, “The pipeline burst as a result of high-intensity water flow because of incessant rainfall in Dima Hasao and neighbouring Meghalaya Hills. Because of this, we had to close the plant for renovation work.”
Over 80 per cent of the project machinery has been damaged because of the flood. Approach bridges in the project area too were washed away.
This is not the first incident in the district as a similar incident took place at NEEPCO–run Kapili Hydroelectric Power Project at Umrangso, leading to the death of three people in October 2019.
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