Maharashtra: Two farmers who fell into river-linking tunnel in Pune found dead, bodies recovered

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Two farmers, who fell into a 300 feet deep tunnel linking Nira and Bhima rivers in Pune district of Maharashtra and went missing, were found dead hours later.

Their bodies were fished out, news wire PTI reported quoting officials on Thursday.

The deceased, Anil Bapurao Narute and Ratilal Balbhim Narute, fell down into the tunnel around 5.30 pm on Wednesday and their bodies were recovered around midnight, they said.

The duo was pulling up a submersible water pump through an open shaft of the tunnel near Akole village in Indapur tehsil when the rope snapped and they fell down, a district administration official had said.

"The bodies of the two farmers were fished out around midnight and sent for post-mortem," inspector Vikram Salunke of Walchandnagar police station said.

Meanwhile, rescue operations to evacuate 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel resumed on Thursday morning after an overnight hurdle delayed the drilling by several hours.

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Former advisor to the prime minister's office Bhaskar Khulbe said an iron mesh thad had come in the path of the drilling machine creating an escape passage for the workers was removed in the morning but has delayed the rescue operation by 12 to 14 hours.

Removing the mesh in a claustrophobic environment inside the pipe was difficult and the problem was compounded by the lack of oxygen, Khulbe told reporters.

"It took us six hours to remove it. But the good news is that we have cleared the hurdle which came yesterday after drilling up to 45 metres had been done," he said.

Now the process of assembling to go beyond 45 metres which requires welding the pipes has been restarted. The drilling will also resume soon, he said.

It will take around 12 to 14 hours more to complete the whole operation of reaching the workers. After that, it will take three hours to take out the workers one by one. That will be done with the help of NDRF, Khulbe said.

Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Gen V K Singh and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Director General Atul Karwal have arrived in Silkyara for an on-the-spot review of the rescue efforts.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is also likely to arrive soon.

The drilling of 800 mm diameter steel pipes was halted on Wednesday night after the mesh came in the way of the auger machine, officials said.

Till 6 pm on Wednesday, up to 44 metres of the escape pipe had been inserted into the debris, an official update said in Delhi. (With inputs from agencies)