Experts further zero in on the likely spot of truck buried in Gangavali river near Shirur
The Hindu
Ongoing search for missing truck and driver in Gangavali river, with private agency confirming driver's identity.
As the joint search operations for tracing the missing truck from Kerala and its driver believed to be buried under water entered the 10th day on Thursday, experts further zeroed in on likely spots in the Gangavali river near Shirur of Uttara Kannada where landslip has caused devastation.
Amid the ongoing coordinated efforts made by different government agencies, along with a private agency from Delhi, it has now been confirmed that the partially recovered body is that of the driver Saravanan.
The confirmation came after DNA collected from the body was compared with that of Saravanan’s parents.
The former Major General Indra Balan and his team from the private agency in Delhi spent the whole day searching for spots where the truck could have been buried.
While they identified two spots on Wednesday, they zeroed in on the third one on Thursday after a day-long reconnaissance done using deep penetrating RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) and SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) mounted drone.
Speaking to media persons at Shirur on Thursday evening, Indra Balan said: “We were looking for four missing metal objects, i.e., roadside railing, electric tower, the truck and the cabin of the tanker. On Wednesday, we identified two and today (Thursday), we managed to find the third,” he said.
“Among these three points, the one downstream, located at 60 m from the riverbank, seems to be the location of the buried truck, which is likely to be stuck at a depth of 9 m in the riverbed. We are further processing data and will analyse it again tonight and profile the spots and then give the final assessment to the district administration for further action,” he said.