NDRF faces great unknown in bid to save 14 trapped in tunnels

Between 6am and 6.30am on Friday, a team of 60 rescuers from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will be on tenterhooks. They will be travelling to remote Chungthang in North Sikkim. The challenge in front of them is daunting-a dozen-off people feared trapped in tunnels for 48 hours without food, water or any possible exit. Nobody knows if the tunnels are inundated or not. Nobody knows if the 12-14 people are dead or alive.

- Prawesh Lama

With the task at hand largely unknown, the rescue team will comprise land rescuers and scuba divers. They will be armed with hammers, water guns, rock cutters, satellite phones, generator sets and lifesaving medical equipment.

Power lines snapped, cell towers wrecked, bridges destroyed and roads washed away-Wednesday's flash floods have cut Chungthang town off from the rest of Sikkim. The connectivity blackout has meant that there is no information on the people trapped. All that's known so far is that they work with a state government firm that manages the Teesta -III dam. The tunnels are all within the Teesta-III dam compound, which was destroyed during Thursday's flash floods.

The Sikkim government on Wednesday acted on information from local authorities and informed the Centre, which ordered that an NDRF team be sent to the tunnels.

For now, the team is hopeful.