Four engineering students drown in Krishna river

Vijayawada: Four engineering students of MIC Engineering College, Kanchikacherla, Krishna district, drowned in River Krishna near Pavitra Sangamam on Saturday. The students went to the Pavitra Sangam, which is the confluence of Krishna and Godavari waters, to spend their vacation.

Unfortunately, they drowned in gushing river waters at about 4 pm. The students were identified as K Praveen, K Nagakrishna Chaitanya Reddy, N Srinath and P Raj Kumar in the age group of 19 to 21, and were staying in college hostel in Kanchikacherla.According to police, they crossed the safety railing arranged near the ghat, which was built during the Krishna Pushkaralu and it led to the mishap.

As part of a safety measure, the railings were erected before Pushkaralu. The students could not assess the speed and depth of the river. Eye witnesses said one student initially ventured into river to take bath. He suddenly drowned. Later, three others tried to save him and drowned. NDRF teams, State Disaster Response teams and local expert swimmers immediately swung into action and began search to trace the missing students. In-charge district collector Vijay Krishnan, joint commissioner of police Kanti Rana Tata, local revenue, fire and police officials immediately rushed to the spot and monitored the search operations.

Nearly 90 members belonging to the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response and local fishermen continued search in the boats from around 4.30 pm to late night. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed shock over the incident and instructed the officials to speed up search operations to trace the missing students.

Pavitra Sangamam became a dangerous point when waters from Godavari arrive here via Pattiseema lift irrigation project. This is the second big disaster at Pavitra Sangamam. Last year, 22 boat passengers were drowned at the same place. Shocked over the incident some parents and family members reached the spot on Saturday night.