Five killed at Pulichintala dam

Hyderabad: Five persons including a contractor were killed in a mudslide at the GENCO hydroelectric power station at the Pulichintala Project site in Medlacheruvu of Nalgonda district on Friday. The workers were constructing a retention wall against mud hillocks, when the hillocks collapsed. The mud had been collected and deposited during the evacuation for the project. The hillocks had absorbed rainwater and collapsed while construction was on, cops said.

The victims were identified as GENCO contractor Gopala Krishna, 35, a resident of Domalapanta village in Mahbubnagar district, and labourers B. Govind Reddy, from Nalgonda district, Khalid, a native of Uttar Pradesh, Nandu, a native of Madhya Pradesh and Subbu, a native of Kolkata. All of them were in their early twenties.

Police said that as the mud hillocks were likely to crash anytime the officials had decided to build a retention wall against it to prevent untoward incidents. After building the foundation, the workers were building the wall when the incident took place at around 1 pm.

“Due to the rains in the last few days, the mud had absorbed water. While they were working, the upper portion of the hillocks collapsed and buried them,” said Mr G. Shravan Kumar, DSP, Suryapet sub-division.

Others who were present at the spot rushed to their rescue and alerted officials. Using evacuators, the victims were pulled out but it was too late. The police registered a case of suspicious death under Section 174 of CrPC. The families of the victims, however, had not alleged negligence, the cops said.

“There were no allegations of negligence against the project authorities. We have intimated the families, and are taking measures to ensure exgratia for the families,” the DSP said. SP Dr Prabhakar Rao and public representatives from the district and officials of the project were present at the spot supervising rescue operations.