Telangana tunnel collapse: Fading hope for survivors, 40 metres left to go
Telangana, FEB 24 : Nagarkurnool District Collector B Santosh, on Monday, said that two rescue teams of the Army as well as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were deploying machinery to cover the final 40 m to the people feared trapped after a tunnel roof collapse on Saturday.
“We are sending a team now. We couldn’t reach the last 40 m yesterday; now with the help of a machine we will reach that as well. Parallelly, de-watering is going on and also excavators will be sent inside,” Santosh said.
However, Minister Jupally Krishna Rao, who was overseeing the rescue operations, said the chances of survival of the eight persons who were trapped were “very remote”.
“I can’t predict the chances of survival, but the chances are not very good … But even if there is the slightest chance, we will try to save them. There are eight people: four labourers, two company employees and two international employees. We are not sparing any effort and there is no lapse at all,” Krishna Rao said on Monday.
He also mentioned that a team of rat miners, who rescued the construction workers trapped in the Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand in 2023, joined the rescue teams to extricate the men.
According to the District Collector, the seepage continued but the authorities were taking all precautions to prevent any further damage.
Meanwhile, news agency ANI reported that Larsen & Toubro was deploying an endoscopic camera, through which the inside of the tunnel could be monitored. “We have done this during the rescue operation in Uttarakhand as well. Two teams have come. Endoscopic and robotic cameras have been brought,” the operator of the camera, Dowdeep told ANI.
At least eight people, including engineers and labourers, were feared trapped after a tunnel roof collapsed, due to a slipped concrete segment used to seal seepage. The incident occurred on Saturday at the 14-km inlet of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SBC), running from Srisailam to Devarakonda in the district.
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was actively overseeing the rescue operation at the SLBC site, where local rescue teams, Indian Army and Navy personnel, NDRF and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) agencies were working together.
The NDRF Deputy Commander, on Sunday, reported that a team entered the tunnel at 10 pm on Saturday to assess the situation. Using a locomotive and conveyor belt, they covered 13 km but found a 200-m debris-filled section at the Tunnel Boring Machine’s end. Attempts to contact the trapped workers were unsuccessful. Waterlogging between the 11-13 km mark also delayed the debris removal. The rescue operation hinges on completing dewatering before clearing the debris to locate the workers.
“Our first team reached here around 7 pm on Saturday to rescue the trapped workers. First, we need to complete the dewatering process and then remove the debris,” he said, adding that the exact location of the trapped workers was yet to be ascertained.
-PTI
