Kozhikode/Ankola : The Iboard drone indicated exact spot in the mud mound on riverbed where the truck is currently lodged - 132 meters away from shore meaning, the truck slid further from its initial location. According to latest data, the truck appears broken and lies lodged in the mud-mound formed from the landslide in the river.
The strong undercurrent inside the river – currently 6.8 knots, that’s thrice over the safety limit – makes it impossible for divers to get to the truck and floating pontoons are being brought from Karvar to keep the search going.
As naval divers called off their diving owing to intense riverflow, a popular local name in underwater search - Eshwar Malpe, and his team of eight divers -have arrived to aid the search for missing Kozhikode trucker Arjun and 2 others.
The plan, Malpe said is to clamp three sets of ropes underwater and do a diving-search while remaining strongly hinged to the safety ropes The Malpe team are fisherfolks with an impressive track record of rescuing large no. of people and at other times, recovering bodies in some of the most adverse weather conditions.
Meanwhile Ministers Mohammad Riyas and AK Saseendran, who are camped in Shirur, assured of an all-out search using all resources at disposal. They said to have requested Karnataka government to supply pontoons and are keenly pursuing efforts to fetch pontoons from Rajasthan too.
