Dam water discharge to be stopped for 40 mins

• Extreme cold water conditions hampering search operations
  
• Divers unable to stay in water for more than 10 mins at a time
  
• Help from local swimmers sought to point out creeks and tunnels

Hyderabad: The Himachal Pradesh State authorities on Friday decided to stop the discharge of Beas river water for all the three dams in Mandi district from early hours of Saturday. The decision was taken at a coordination meeting held with the heads of the search operation teams at Mandi, as the brisk search operation failed to retrieve all the bodies of the students who were washed away in River Beas on Sunday.

The authorities also decided to seek the help of local swimmers and people to point out tunnels and creeks in the river bed, where the bodies could have been stuck, to the huge force of specialised divers from Navy and NDRF.

A huge team of 800 experts have been searching for the missing bodies using technology like under water cameras and unmanned aerial aircraft. But the search operations were being hindered by the extreme cold water conditions. The divers were not able to remain in water for more than 10 minutes at a time, officials said.

The officials felt that since the flow from Himalayas would be very less between 5 am and 9 am, and as the water levels would be manageable near the dam area, discharge of water should be stopped for 40 minutes. The officials of National Power Grid Corporation also assured them that they would take measures to
see that power supply is not hampered.