As the horror for the eight trapped men in Telangana’s Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel collapse persists, a multi-department effort of the government to rescue them is on. The rescue team is working round the clock but no breakthrough has been achieved yet.
1. On Saturday morning, a three-meter section of the roof of an under-construction stretch of the SLBC tunnel caved in at the 14 km mark near Domalapenta in Nagarkurnool district, Telangana. The collapse happened four days after the construction work had renewed after a lengthy pause.
2. In the incident, some workers present at the scene escaped but eight got trapped. As per media reports, of the eight trapped, two are engineers, two operators, and four labourers. They have been identified as Gurpreet Singh (Punjab), Sunny Singh (Jammu and Kashmir), Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas (Uttar Pradesh), and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu (Jharkhand).
3. On the next day of the collapse (Sunday), the rescue operations at the tunnel by teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and the Indian Army were not able to reach the trapped workers.
4. Moving to Monday, according to PTI, a team of 584 skilled personnel from the Army, Navy, Singareni Collieries, and other agencies along with NDRF and SDRF teams, have conducted tunnel inspections seven times, official sources said adding gas cutters to cut the metal rod were continuously working.
5. Telangana Minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Monday said the chances of the trapped workers’ survival are “very remote,” and rescuing them 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.
6. “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 to 25 feet,” Rao told PTI. He added, “When we shouted their names also, there was no response… So, there (seems to be) no chance at all.”
7. Minister Krishna Rao continued to talk about 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.
8. Fast forward to Tuesday, the Telangana state government brought in experts from the Geological Survey of India and the National Geographical Research Institute besides an Australian part of L&T who has vast experience in tunnels, to suggest the way forward regarding the rescue of eight persons who remain trapped for the fourth day in the tunnel, as per PTI.
9. Nagarkurnool District Collector B Santhosh told PTI before taking any step forward stability of the tunnel has been taken into consideration even as dewatering is going on.
10. “As of now we are not able to communicate with them (trapped). We are taking the advice of the Geological survey of India and some other people. As of now we are dewatering and going forward. But for the last 40 or 50 meters we are not able to go. As of now we are taking the advice of GSI and NGRI. L& T experts have also come here,” the collector continued.
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