1 week Ago By The Assam Tribune
Subansiri Lower Hydro-Electric Project (SLHEP) dam at Gerukamukh.North Lakhimpur, Apr 9: A worker recently lost his life when the crane on which he was working fell from a height of 116 feet at the nearly completed 2000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydro-Electric Project (SLHEP) dam at Gerukamukh on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh inter-state boundary.The incident occurred late on Monday afternoon when the crane crashed down and broke, killing the lone worker working on it.
The victim has been identified as one Manoj Sonowal (26) of Salakhbari in Gogamukh. Panic prevailed at the accident site following the incident, prompting the authorities to speed up the rescue operation. After an hour-long operation, the body of the victim was recovered from where it had got buried under a heap of earth.
The incident was the second of its kind in a period of less than a year. On May 27 last year, a worker named Putul Gogoi from Gogamukh was killed at the upstream diversion tunnel cavity protection area due to the sudden fall of a boulder from an elevation of around 100 metres on the left bank hill, which directly hit him while he was working on pile cap reinforcement work for concreting of the upstream dam axis. Earlier, on October 28, 2023, a worker from Arunachal Pradesh was killed inside a diversion tunnel of the dam site at Gerukamukh due to a landslide.
Similarly, on November 2, 2022, a worker named Ashok Sadha (42) of Musahar, Nepal, was killed while performing shuttering work at Block-7 of the main dam of the SLHEP. On June 6, 2022, the roof of Intact Tunnel no. 2 at the SLHEP had suddenly collapsed, killing one Jitu Hatibarua and injuring some other workers.
The latest tragedy involving the death of the workers has raised concern about the safety standards at the SLHEP work site, which is being constructed by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). The 2000 MW structure is expected to be completed in May this year and will be fully operational by 2026.ByCorrespondent.
