HP tunnel collapse case: Body of worker traced after 10 months

The body of a worker, who was buried nearly 10 months ago in a collapse incident at an under- construction tunnel in Himachal Pradesh, has been traced, police today said.
The incident took place in Bilaspur, bout 90 km from here in which a major portion of Tihra tunnel of Kiratpur-Manali four laning project had collapsed.
Three construction workers -- Mani Ram(41), Satish Tomar (21) and Hriday Ram were trapped inside the collapsed tunnel. And, while Mani and Satish were rescued on September 21 last by NDRF teams after ten days, but Hriday Ram could not be traced and was presumed dead.

"We expect to dig out the body from the debris very soon and some positive indications have come to notice", Bilaspur SP, Rahul Nath said.
The construction company has resumed the work which was suspended after the mishap on September 12 last and debris has been excavated and the shoes of Hriday Ram have been spotted.
The heavy machinery used for removing the debris has been removed for the site from the time being and the work is being done manually to avoid any damage to the body, and it may take some time before we get to it, officials said.

After the mishap, Hriday Ram's family members had insisted that his body must be retrieved so that they could perform the last rite and today his mother, father and wife were present at the tunnel site.
Mani Ram was first to be taken out through the 47 m deep and 1.2 m diameter tunnel after 211 hours and 47 minutes followed by Satish Tomar who came out eight minutes later.
The three employees of Himalayan Construction Company (HCC) were trapped at Tehri, 13 km from Bilaspur, on the night of the collapse and round-the-clock rescue operations were conducted by engineers of HCC, SJVNL, HP Power Corporation, NHAI , NDRF and the district administration.