Kottayam: The funeral of Kerala geologist Anish Mohan (43), who lost his life in the Sikkim tunnel collapse earlier this week, will be held at his residence at Pampady in Kottayam on Saturday.

His mortal remains arrived in Kerala on Saturday morning on an Air India flight after being flown from Kolkata. Chief Minister V D Satheesan intervened to expedite the transportation of the body with the assistance of NORKA. Anish's family received the body at the Cochin International Airport before it was taken to his hometown by ambulance.

The body was transported by road from Sikkim to the  Kolkata airport on Friday and embalmed at a mobile facility before being airlifted to Kochi. The funeral rites will begin at 2 pm following public homage at his residence.

Anish, a Senior Geologist (Remote Sensing) with the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), was accompanying a team of NTPC consultants and engineers inspecting the under-construction Head Race Tunnel (HRT) of the NHPC Teesta Stage-IV hydroelectric project at Samardung in South Sikkim when the accident occurred on July 20.

According to NHPC, a suspected release of methane gas trapped inside the rock triggered an explosion inside the tunnel, causing it to fill with dense fumes and toxic gases before collapsing and trapping Anish and others.

His body was recovered in the early hours last Thursday after an intensive three-day search operation involving teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), NHPC, local authorities and other agencies. Rescue efforts were hampered by flooding inside the collapsed tunnel, toxic gases and damage to the oxygen supply line.

Anish's brother, Bineesh, had said the geologist was not originally scheduled to enter the tunnel. He had accompanied a team of consultants and civil engineers who wanted to inspect the site on the day of the accident. Anish had been with NHPC since 2011 and was recently transferred from Haryana to Sikkim.