No Sign of Life Yet: Tragic Tunnel Collapse, Rescue Efforts Continue, Survival Chances Slim

Hyderabad(The Uttam Hindu): The operation in Telangana's Nagarkurnool district to rescue eight trapped workers from an under-construction tunnel, a part of which collapsed on Saturday, continued on Monday night with no sign of survivors. More than 60 hours after a portion of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel collapsed, the fate of eight men, including two engineers and two machine operators, was not known.

Multiple teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Army, and other agencies continued their efforts to dewater and desilt the tunnel close to the point where a portion of the roof had collapsed. Two teams of construction major Larsen & Toubro with advanced equipment on Monday joined the operation. The teams deployed endoscopic and robotic cameras to capture any movements of trapped men.

The same equipment for rescue operations after the Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel collapse in Uttarakhand, where 41 workers trapped inside were rescued after 17 days in 2023. Rat miners, who were part of the Silkyara rescue operation, were assisting the NDRF, Army, and others in the rescue effort. Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santosh said the rescue teams had to cover a distance of another 40 metres to reach the point where the roof had collapsed. This stretch of the tunnel is filled with muck, making further advance of the rescue operations difficult.

The tunnel remained flooded with water for about two kilometres, making the rescue task more challenging for more than 300 rescue workers. Rescue teams deployed heavy motors for dewatering. The NDRF, the Army, the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), and the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) were making intensive efforts to dewater and desilt the tunnel.

Ministers Uttam Kumar Reddy, Jupally Krishna Rao, and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and senior officials were supervising the rescue operation. jupally Krishna Rao told media persons after coming out of the tunnel that the chances of finding the trapped persons alive were very remote. He said the rescue team called out names of the trapped men but there was no response. Two workers were injured and eight others were trapped when a portion of the tunnel being dug as part of SLBC collapsed near Domalapenta.

A total of 50 persons were working on the left-side tunnel when the roof collapsed for three meters. The accident occurred at the 14th km point. While 42 workers came out of the tunnel, the remaining eight were trapped. Those trapped include two engineers and two machine operators. The trapped men are from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.

Project manager Manoj Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Machine engineer Srinivas (Uttar Pradesh) and machine operators Sunny Singh (J&K) and Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) are among those trapped. The four workers from Jharkhand are Sandeep Sahu, Santosh Sahu, Anju Sahu, and Jagta Khes. The Telangana government recently resumed the construction work on the tunnel to complete the long-pending project. The construction firm had started work four days ago and on Saturday morning 50 workers entered the tunnel for the work.