The body of a 47-year-old sanitation worker who went missing in a sewage canal in Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday was found on Monday morning after a search and rescue mission that lasted 46 hours. The victim, N Joy, was found dead, floating among the garbage, even as a Navy team was scheduled to take over the rescue mission, which involved a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team, scuba divers, and even robots. According to officials, the body was recovered from a stretch of the Amayizhanjan canal, around one km away from where Joy slipped into it, where he was deployed along with two other men to clear waste to ensure sewage flow. Local people spotted the body and alerted the officials. While clearing the waste to ensure sewage flow, Joy slipped into the canal at around 11 am on Saturday. Amid heavy rain, he got swept into a tunnel. His body flowed through the tunnel underneath the railway track and got discharged at the other end of the tunnel, which opened into another canal. While rescue workers struggled to find the missing person through the waste-laden canal, the CPI(M)-controlled municipal corporation and the Railways were engaged in a blame game over the onus of ensuring smooth waste flow in the canal’s 140-metre tunnel stretch running under the Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station. For the last two days, teams of NDRF and scuba divers have tried to search for the missing worker in the canal's tunnel portion, which flows under the railway station. As the garbage accumulated in the tunnel posed a major challenge for the search, the rescue work did not make any headway until Sunday evening. On Saturday, scuba diving teams ventured into the canal, but could not move ahead due to the accumulated waste. They also wriggled into the manhole between the railway tracks, but could not wade through the bed of waste. Toxic air in the tunnel, which gets narrow beneath the railway station, also made the mission difficult. As night fell on Saturday, the rescue team fetched a robot, called the Bandicoot, designed by the city-based GenRobotics Innovation Pvt Ltd to clean manholes. The robot was lowered into the manhole to clear the waste from the tunnel underneath the railway station. On Sunday morning, the search resumed, with a team of NDRF personnel joining the effort. The NDRF team and scuba divers made several attempts in the tunnel but could only search up to 40 metres in the 140-metre tunnel. Around noon Sunday, a robot with a camera was sent into the tunnel. However, no trace was found. Additional Divisional Railway Manager M R Viji told the media that the corporation has been cleaning the canal flowing underneath the railway station. “In 2015, there was a special drive by the corporation. In later years also, they had done the work. In 2023, we cleared the tunnel portion of the canal as the corporation did not take up the job. This year, they wanted us to clean the canal and hence we gave the contract. The waste deposited in the canal passing under the railway track is not generated by the Railways. We always had allowed the corporation to clean the canal under the tracks,” she said. CPI(M) leader and corporation mayor Arya Rajendran, however, said the Railways is responsible for clearing the waste in the tunnel under its tracks. “Several times, the corporation had asked the Railways to clear the waste from the tunnel. During the search, railway waste was also spotted. The Railways will have to give evidence about their waste disposal and treatment facilities,” she said.
