Telangana tunnel collapse: More forces join rescue operation, no sign of trapped workers yet

Hyderabad: More forces including army personnel, navy, NDRF and other agencies joined the rescue operation for eight workers trapped in the SLBC tunnel. Though the rescue operation is continuing since Sunday, there is no trace of any of the workers yet.The rescue teams had to navigate through thick muck, tangled iron rods, and cement blocks to reach the accident spot in the tunnel to extricate the persons. The eight workers trapped inside the tunnel after a section of it collapsed in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project in Telangana's Nagarkurnool district on Saturday morning.

A team of 584 skilled personnel of Army, Navy, Singareni Collieries and other agencies along with central and state disaster response teams, have conducted tunnel inspections seven times, official sources said adding gas cutters to cut the metal rod are continuously working.

Sniffer dogs were also brought in to locate those inside the tunnel. However, due to the presence of water, they were unable to move forward. The incident kicked up a political row with BRS Working President KT Rama Rao hitting out at Chief Minister Revanth Reddy in a social media post, saying the CM who is actively participating in MLC poll campaign has no time to visit the accident spot.

Reacting to that, Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy claimed that the opposition leader did not go to Sircilla where seven people died due to the Kaleshwaram project. The Minister added that two of his cabinet colleagues were at the tunnel site overseeing the rescue works.

Minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Monday said the chances of their survival are "very remote," and rescuing the trapped individuals would take at least three to four days, as the accident site is filled with muck and debris, making it a daunting task for the rescuers.

He also mentioned that a team of rat miners, who had rescued the construction workers trapped in the Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand in 2023, has joined the rescue teams to extricate the men.

Telangana Chief Minister has instructed officials to leave no stone unturned in the efforts to save the trapped persons, even as the Indian Army and the Navy have joined the rescue operations along with NDRF, SDRF and other agencies.

"To be honest, the chances of their survival are very, very, very, very remote. Because, I myself went up to the end, almost just 50 meters short (of the accident site). When we took photographs, the end (of the tunnel) was visible. And out of the 9 meter diameter (of the tunnel)--almost 30 feet, out of that 30 feet, mud has piled up up to 25 feet", Krishna Rao told PTI.

"When we shouted their names also, there was no response...so, there (seems to be) no chance at all," he said.

The persons who have been trapped in the collapsed tunnel for the past over 48 hours have been identified as Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh (Jammu and Kashmir), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand. Of the eight, two are engineers, two operators and four labourers.

Meanwhile, the family members of four workers from Jharkhand, who have been trapped in a collapsed section of a tunnel in Telagana, left for the southern state on Monday.