Guwahati: As many as 21 labourers were killed while one miraculously survived after a truck carrying 22 workers from Gelapukhuri Assam’s Tinsukia district skidded off a narrow mountain road and plunged nearly 700 metres into a deep gorge near Metengliang in Arunachal Pradesh’s remote Anjaw district, police said on Thursday.
According to preliminary reports, the labourers were travelling to Chhat (Poraghar) in Assam’s Tinsukia district when the vehicle reportedly lost control on the unstable hillside and rolled down the slope. Local authorities and emergency teams rushed to the spot, but steep cliffs and loose soil have slowed down retrieval efforts.
According to Anjaw Superintendent of Police Anurag Dwivedi, the group had departed from Tinsukia on December 7 for Chaglagam to work at a construction site. However, when they failed to reach their destination by December 10, their associates lodged an enquiry at the Hayuliang police station.
Following the complaint, Hayuliang police activated local sources to trace the missing labourers. During the search, information was received from a Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) camp that an injured man had reached the camp claiming that the truck in which he was travelling, along with 21 others, had met with an accident. The survivor was administered first aid at the BRTF camp and later shifted to Assam via Tezu for further treatment.
Preliminary investigation indicates that the truck skidded off the road on December 8 between 8–9 pm, around 11 km from Chaglagam, and crashed into a deep valley.
Due to the absence of mobile connectivity in the region, the incident went unreported for nearly two days, with authorities learning of it only on December 10, the SP said.
Dwivedi said the survivor’s account enabled police to pinpoint the crash site, after which teams from the Army, Border Roads Organisation (BRO), local police and district administration were mobilised for search and rescue.
A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has also been requisitioned, he added.
“As of now, 17 bodies have been spotted, and retrieval efforts are under way. The gorge is extremely deep, around 700 metres, which is posing major challenges for rescue personnel,” he said. The police are currently treating the case as an accident.
As per available records, 18 of the 22 labourers belonged to Gilapukhuri Tea Estate in Tinsukia, Assam, officials said.
Officials have prepared a list of the deceased labourers, all of whom hail from Assam. Those identified so far include Gudheswor Deep (23), Rahul Kumar (25), Somir Deep (22), Arjun Kumar (28), Pankaj Manki (20), Ajay Manki (30), Abjay Kumar (26), Abhoy Dhuria (24), Rohit Manki (20), Dhirendra Kumar (22), Ador Tanti (24), Dhiren Chariya (28), Rojoin Nag (21), Deep Gogala (28), Ramselok Buna (26), Samaron Nag (26), Binay Kumar (26), Karan Kumar (26) and Junash Munda (20). All of them were engaged in labour work in the region.
State governments of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are coordinating closely to manage the aftermath of the incident and extend assistance to the affected families.
