Uttarakhand disaster: NTPC to pay Rs 20 lakh as compensation to kin of workers killed at its Tapovan project
State-run power giant NTPC on Monday said it would pay a compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the families of labourers who died in the recent flash flood at its Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project in Uttarakhand. Details of the procedure for payment of the amount to the next of kin of labourers killed in the calamity is being worked out, NTPC’s spokesman RP Jayada told reporters.
A workforce has been set up at the plant to coordinate with the administration and gather all required information about every missing worker, he said.
He said rescue work is underway on a war footing at Tapovan-Vishnugad project site by multiple agencies to reach people believed to be trapped inside the tunnel.
Real-time information is being shared with the agencies involved in the exercise to expedite it, Jayada said.
The spokesman said 325 people including engineers, officials, scientists and geologists of NTPC, THDC, CISF, UPNL and their subsidiaries are stationed at the project site to speed up the rescue work.
Three more bodies were recovered on Monday from the flood-ravaged Tapovan tunnel, taking the toll in the glacial disaster in Uttarakhand to 53.
Officials said over 150 people still remain missing after the February 7 devastation, possibly triggered by an avalanche in the upper reaches of the Alaknanda river system.