Punjab: Efforts underway to rescue technician trapped in 70-ft-deep trench

Chandigarh, Aug 13 (IANS) A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel was deployed on Sunday to retrieve a 54-year-old technician who has been trapped in a 70-foot-deep trench in Punjab.

The worker has been identified as Suresh Yadav. He hails from Jind in Haryana, and has a good experience in digging trenches. 

He fell into the pit while rectifying a fault in the machine deployed for digging during the construction of the Delhi-Katra expressway near Kartarpur in Jalandhar district on Saturday evening.

Rescuers have been digging a parallel pit for the evacuation of the worker who got struck after a huge mass of earth collapsed and fell on him. 

Suresh along with another technician Pawan Kumar had entered the trench to inspect the machine. While they were in the trench, the disaster occurred. 

Kumar was successfully rescued, while Yadav got trapped.

Both have been employed by a National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) contractor, which has been laying the Kapurthala-Kartarpur stretch of the expressway.

A team of doctors and ambulances were stationed at the spot to provide emergency aid.
 
Adequate supply of oxygen inside the trench is being provided to the struck worker.

After digging the parallel tunnel, a passage to create access to the technician is being made through another horizontal tunnel, a rescuer told IANS.