Itanagar, Nov 27: After four days of hectic search the body of Suvendu Choudhary, the Chief Principal Security Officer of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), was found on Wednesday in the Lohit River in Arunachal Pradesh, officials said.
Railway officials said that Choudhary’s body was recovered on Wednesday afternoon around 20 km downstream. Senior officers of NFR have reached the location. According to a railway official, Choudhary, 55, after completing official works on Sunday went to Parashuram Kund, a Hindu pilgrimage centre situated at Telu Shati area of Mishmi plateau in Lohit district, along with family and other NFR officials but suddenly slipped into the deep water of the Lohit River and was swept away.
Immediately after the incident, search and rescue operations at Parashuram Kund and downstream locations were launched jointly by the National and State Disaster Response Force, the army, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, and local police teams.
The railway official said that 12 boats had been deployed and patrol teams were carrying out searches at all possible locations, including three places where the river widens. Senior officers of NFR, including the Divisional Railway Manager, Tinsukia, were at the location, and coordinated with state and district authorities to deploy all possible means.
NFR General Manager Chetan Kumar Shrivastava was in touch with the top officials of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam state governments. NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Kapinjal Kishore Sharma said that the entire railway fraternity stands with the bereaved family of Choudhary in this heartbreaking moment.
He will be deeply missed, the CPRO said. Parshuram Kund is in the lower reaches of the Lohit River, 48 km from Tezu, the headquarters of the Lohit district. The NFR, one among the 17 railway zones in India, operates in the northeastern states, seven districts of West Bengal and five districts of north Bihar. According to officials, as many as 18 railway infrastructure projects of 1,368 km length with a total investment of Rs 74,972 crore are going on in the eight northeastern states, including Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
IANS