BENGALURU: It has been two weeks since the search for Arjun of Kozhikode, who went missing in the landslide in Shirur, began in the Gangavali River. Two officers of the agriculture department have left for Shirur from Thrissur to see if it is possible to carry out the search operations using a dredger. The team consists of two assistant directors and an operator from the agriculture department.

The team left immediately following Uttara Kannada District Collector’s official request to Thrissur District Collector. They may reach Shirur by tonight. Meantime, a construction company official told a private channel that there are many challenges in using the dredger in the Gangavali River.

The official informed that if the currents in the river rises above four nautical miles, it will be difficult to use the dredger. However, he said that in deep places the dredger works floating above the water and the machine can work by lowering the iron poles to a bottom of six meters.

A dredger can also be used to remove tons of mud from where signals are received in the river. A high-level meeting of the Karnataka government held yesterday evening had officially informed Kerala about the information.

Diver Eshwar Malpe and his team, Navy, NDRF and SDRF mission personnel returned yesterday evening. The tent was also demolished. Several searches were conducted yesterday under the leadership of Malpe. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had directly called Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah yesterday to do everything possible until Arjun is found. The Karnataka government did all that possible. Ministers Mohammad Riyas returned on Saturday night and A K Saseendran Sunday afternoon.