Rourkela: Two engineering students drown

Rourkela: Two engineering students drowned while taking bath in the Brahmani river in Sundargarh district on Saturday, police said. Four other students were rescued by locals from the river, a senior officier said.

These students, including two women, had come to the NIT, Rourkela for a summer internship programme and decided to go to the Vedvyas ghat to bathe in the river, he said.

The deceased were identified as Rajat Sahu and Samiran Sukumar Nayak, both from the Sambalpur University of Information and Technology. Rajat hailed from Balasore, while Samiran was from Raghunathpur, Patia.

Rajat was here from May and was supposed to do an internship till July in electronics and telecommunication and Samiran was pursuing a one-month programme in computer science and engineering.

The health condition of the rescued students was stable and they were undergoing treatment at Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH).

Rourkela MLA Sarada Nayak visited the hospital and enquired about their health. “This is a very tragic incident. I spoke to the students who are admitted to the hospital. They are stable now and will be discharged soon.”

Dr Rohan Dhiman, Registrar of NIT Rourkela, said, “We undertake an internship programme for students from different institutes. The parents of the deceased students have been informed about the incident.”