Three feared buried alive in landslide

The other two, for whom search and rescue operations started around 10.30 pm, were C V Viswanathan, 46, and P A Ramakrishnan, 44.

The mishap occurred near the Pottavila bridge near Idichakkaplamoodu, when Viswanathan, Velayudhan and Ramakrishnan, along with eight others, were removing the earth which had fallen on the railway track on Saturday night.

Mohanan and Sasi, two other workers, were also trapped under the earth, but escaped miraculously. There were 11 people on the track when the earth caved in, local people said.

Viswanathan, Velayudhan and Ramakrishnan, who wereClass IV employees at the Palakkad railway division of the Southern Railway, had come down to the landslip site on Sunday morning, to take part in the work to get the rails ready for traffic.

According to local people, the workers had started work immediately after reaching the site. The employees had wanted to stop for the day around 6 pm, as the area was water-logged and was hanging precariously above.

The authorities, however, wanted to get the earth removed from the rail track by morning. It was shortly afterwards that the mishap occurred.

Local people also said that senior railway officials reached the spot more than an hour after the accident occurred.

According to sources, more than eight hours of hard work would be needed to clear about 2000 cu.m of earth which had caved in. As many as 23 workers were on the job when the landslip occurred, they said.

The District Collector, SP and other officials had been informed and immediate rescue measures were being taken save the trapped labourers. IGRajen Medhekar had been asked to provide necessary assistance at the site through fire service personnel.

Divisional Railway Manager Thomas Varghese has also rushed to the spot. Meanwhile, Southern Railway General Manager N Krithivasan was expected to arrive here today, to get a first hand account about the series of landslips at Idichakkaplamoodu. The chief security officer was also expected to arrive along with him from Chennai.

The restoration of rail traffic in the Neyyatinkara-Kanyakumari sector may not be possible before Friday, following the fresh landslip near the site of the earlier one at Idichakkaplammoodu on Saturday night, Varghese said earlier.

Efforts were on to summon more earth-movers from Tamil Nadu and the State PWD, to tackle the phenomenon of recurrent landslips in the stretch, south of Thiruvananthapuram. The work of removing nearly 8,000 cubic metres of earth was completed at Palliyodi, when there was another caving-in at Idichakkaplamoodu.

Nearly 3,000 cubic metres of earthhave to be removed at the new site. However, the work there might take longer than expected because of the shape of the terrain. A road stretch that goes to a temple and a house perched on the slope would have to be cut down, to bring in earth-movers and remove soil.

“In the face of recurrent landslips caused by incipient cracks, we have decided not to resume traffic until the lines are 100 per cent safe. We will now be more cautious,” said Varghese.

The work is being supervised by Assistant Divisional Manager Satheesh and Senior engineers Vijayakumar and Jayakumar.