Thiruvananthapuram: The search for the man who went missing on Saturday morning in the Pazhavangadi canal (Amayizhanchan canal) is on as the rescuers have failed to trace the trapped man. When the search operation completed nine hours at 8 pm, the rescue team claimed that it would take at least five more hours to clear the garbage piled up inside the canal.
Joy, a native of Marayimuttom, went missing in the canal around 11 am on Saturday. A temporary contract worker, he, along with two others, was cleaning the Thampanoor part of the canal when the water flow increased due to heavy rains. "As the flow increased, we got out of the canal, but Joy couldn't," his co-workers said.
A team of 50 people including the fire force, police, and scuba divers are trying to rescue the man who is feared trapped in a 200-metre-long canal tunnel which runs under the railway station. Two robots from Genrobotics have been put to use to clear the garbage pile in the canal.
Meanwhile, Minister V Sivankutty, along with city Mayor Arya Rajendran, visited the accident site and said the cleaning of the tunnel was the Railway's responsibility. "The rescue effort is progressing," Sivankutty said.
The minister said whenever the corporation or the government said it was ready to clean the tunnel, the Railway refused to allow it. "They (Railways) always took a stand that it was their property and that they would clean it. The full responsibility on the waste accumulation falls on the Railways," Sivankutty said.
Arya said other than a few engineers, no other Railway officials visited the place. "Even though the tunnel does not come under our jurisdiction, we have decided to move forward with the rescue operation as we need to rescue the worker," she said.
(With PTI inputs)
