Mukesh Sharma

Kalimpong,4th April

The rescue group of Teesta River Rafting today retrieved two dead-bodies from river Teesta, alongside NH10 underKalimpong sub-division.

The dead duo identified as Amir Chettri (29) of Seed Farm and Vivek Lama of upper Dungra Busty are amongst the 5 people who have been missing since the March 30 evening hours when the Santro vehicle bearing WB 74D 9931 registration no. that they boarded had met with an accident at the Bandaray Bhir. Since then a massive frantic search was initiated by the rescue group but had failed to retrieve any of the dead-bodies till date.

Today, Chettri's body was seen floating and was retrieved from Likhuveer area under Teesta CP while Lama's lifeless body was retrieved from the NHPC dam at 27th Mile under the Rambi PS jurisdiction. The other missing trio whose dead bodies are yet to be traced are driver Ricky Khati, Rohit Ghimiray and Ajay Sarki. The confirmation of the March 30 accident had come after some documents of the vehicle and the driver's Identity card was found at the site.
 

GTA deputy chief Col Ramesh Alay when asked about the lack of rescue experts and equipments reaffirmed that his administrationis taking the matter seriously and informed that the issue will be raised soon with the District Magistrate."We are serious and will soon arrange a meeting with NHPC, GREF, Administration to sort the issue of establishment of a rescue center at NH," he said. 

The Sevoke-Rongpo stretch along NH 10 is a high accident prone zone with regular reports of accidents taking place.