By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
One body of a worker was recovered on Saturday from a tunnel of 444 Mw Vishnugad-Pipalkoti hydel project being constructed by THDC India ltd on Alaknanda river taking the death toll to eight.
THDCIL announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the next of the kin of each deceased who was killed in the disaster on Thursday evening after a portion of the 3 km long tunnel collapsed following landslides in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. Two workers are still missing, top officials said on Saturday. Not satisfied with the compensation amount, CPI-ML state secretary Indresh Maikhuri has demanded Rs one crore for the each dead in the disaster and Rs 50 lakh for the injured at any cost.
The search operation is still continuing in the collapsed tunnel, they said.
The state operation emergency centre had confirmed the death of seven workers inside the tunnel which was being constructed by HCC Ltd under contractual provisions. Among the dead, two workers — Pradip Panwar and Mukesh Singh were from Uttarakhand. The rest of the five were from Uttar Pradesh and Chhatisgarh.
Earlier, officials received information around 7 pm on Thursday evening that 22 workers were trapped inside the tunnel. The district administration, police, SDRF, CISF and other agencies immediately launched a rescue operation.
Nearly 1.5 km of the 3 km long underground tunnel of the project was affected by the landslides.
Teams of the Army, NDRF and SDRF were mobilised as efforts were underway to safely evacuate the workers with all available resources and equipment being deployed.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami flew to Pipalkoti on Friday morning to take stock of the situation and directed officials to conduct the rescue operation on a war footing and maintain close coordination among all agencies. He said the government’s top priority is to ensure the safe evacuation of every person trapped inside the tunnel.
The state and district emergency operation Centres kept closely monitoring the situation. But shortly after midnight, the state operation emergency centre in Dehradun said seven trapped workers were dead inside the tunnel and three were still missing. With the recovery of one more body on Saturday, now only two workers are missing.