Bengaluru: Five days after a worker went missing inside Balagere sewage treatment plant (STP), rescue teams on Tuesday continued to face one of the most challenging recovery operations in recent times. The body of Akhilesh, 30, a native of Bihar, remained untraced despite extensive search efforts.Personnel from the fire and emergency services, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and other agencies have now been searching for the worker for almost a week, painstakingly combing through the STP. With each passing day, pressure is mounting on the teams deployed at the site as they persist in their search for the missing worker.Officials involved in the operation told TOI that the entire tank has already been searched once without yielding any results. “The entire STP, which is around 13 metres deep with a radius of nearly 11 metres, has been manually searched. We haven’t found any trace of the body. We have carried out several difficult rescue operations in the past, but we have never struggled this much to locate a missing person,” said an official.In the latest attempt, rescue teams Monday deployed specialised sensors to locate the body. Officials said the sensors were first lowered into four locations identified by BWSSB officials, but the exercise yielded no results. The equipment was later used across the tank system, yet failed to detect any signs of the missing worker.With technology proving unsuccessful, teams have now begun a second round of manual searches, revisiting compartments that were already inspected during the initial phase of the operation.The search has been complicated by the continuous inflow of sewage into the interconnected chambers. Rescue personnel said they are repeatedly undertaking dewatering operations to reduce water levels and improve visibility before entering the tank sections.What has particularly puzzled rescuers is the fact that the search is being carried out in what they describe as a largely closed system. “If this was a large pipeline network or an open water body, it would be a different situation. But this is a closed tank. The body should be somewhere inside the system and has not gone out. The fact that we are still unable to locate it has become the biggest challenge for us,” another official said.The site manager of Balagere STP told TOI that a significant portion of the sewage flow entering the plant has now been diverted to other treatment facilities to aid the rescue operation, with only a limited quantity of water continuing to enter the system.Toll on rescue personnelThe prolonged operation is also taking a toll on rescue personnel. According to officials, more than 25 personnel are working in shifts around the clock. Teams have been battling unbearable stench, exposure to sewage sludge, and difficult working conditions for nearly a week. Sources said several personnel have reported health issues, including infections and sickness, owing to prolonged exposure to the contaminated environment.Akhilesh and Akilan, 29, a mechanical supervisor from Tamil Nadu, fell into the BWSSB-operated treatment facility Thursday evening while inspecting a section of the plant at the end of their shift. Akilan’s body was recovered in the early hours of Saturday and later handed over to his family after autopsy.Neither chief minister DK Shivakumar nor MLA Manjula Limbavali has made any comment on the issue so far.
