Vishakapatnam, April 12: Gopal Behara, who was believed to be trapped alive in an under-construction tunnel at Gandhigram near Sagar Durga hill, here, was found dead by rescue team on Monday evening.
The police have sent the partially decomposed body for post mortem.
On Thursday last at around 11.45 pm, Behara, a tipper driver of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) had gone inside the tunnel for loading debris. Suddenly, the roof and wall of the tunnel caved in. Behara along with the tipper were buried under the debris including a huge boulder weighing 3,000 tonnes.
The debris totally blocked the entrance of the tunnel and since then there was no contact with Behara.
A team of about 50 people including those from Eastern Naval Command were engaged to clear the debris and rescue Behara with expectation that he would be alive.
After the rescue team removed around 70 per cent of debris by today evening, they found that the tipper and Behara were crushed under the giant boulder. Only the rear side of the vehicle was visible while the front part was buried. Under the circumstances, they said it was not possible for Behara to survive.
Following this, the management of Hindustan Construction Company and Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd and police announced that Behara was dead. At around 8 pm, the rescue team managed to retrieve his body after clearing the debris.
The tunnel was dug by HCC for Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) to store crude oil. Project manager of HCC, KV Ramana Rao said around 80 per cent of the tunnel work, which was started in 2008, had been completed.
He said the incident occurred about 2 km inside the tunnel. The company would take steps to pay adequate compensation to Behara’s family, he added.
–Agencies