Lives in balance as Telangana tunnel rescue ops stutter | Latest News India

Hyderabad: The hopes of saving the eight workers trapped in a collapsed and inundated Telangana tunnel dimmed on Monday as rescue personnel struggled to make headway even as rat hole miners were also pressed into action, with continuous water ingress and a deep slush hampering the operation, people aware of the matter said.

Nearly 600 personnel from the National Disaster Response Forces (NDRF), army, navy, Union ministry of road transport and highways, state-owned firm Singareni Collieries, and members of the team involved in the Silkyara rescue operations were working round-the-clock to reach the workers, who were trapped around the 14-km mark inside the 34km tunnel. As the operation entered its third day, NDRF deputy commandant Sukhendu Datta said the rescue team had covered 13.5km but added that they were finding it difficult to cover the last stretch.

“There is heavy stagnation of water and slush for about two kilometres before the collapse site. We could reach up to the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), which is heavily damaged, making further entry extremely difficult. There is massive water accumulation, scattered iron rods, and other debris are obstructing access to the trapped workers,” Datta said.

Authorities have also brought rat hole miners on board to help rescue the trapped men. Two years ago, 12 rat hole miners burrowed through a wall of rock, mud, and debris with hand-held tools in the final breakthrough to help save 41 workers trapped in the Uttarakhand tunnel.

“We have also roped in 14 rat hole miners to help the rescue teams locate the trapped individuals inside the tunnel,” state roads and buildings minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said.

On Saturday morning, eight workers, including two engineers, became trapped when a portion of the roof collapsed at the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Nagarkurnool district, approximately 120km from Hyderabad, during routine excavation work. Workers noticed cracks in two cement concrete blocks on the tunnel’s roof, but before they could respond, the blocks collapsed, bringing down soil and water onto the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), people aware of the matter said. Most of the 65 workers who were inside managed to escape, but at least eight were left behind as the water surged and debris fell.

The trapped individuals include project engineer Manoj Kumar and field engineer Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, four workers from Jharkhand – Sandeep Sahu, Jagta Xess, Santosh Sahu, and Anuj Sahu—along with workers Sunny Singh from Jammu & Kashmir and Gurpreet Singh from Punjab. The collapse resulted in a complete power outage, making it impossible to locate the trapped workers. No contact has been established with them since the cave-in. The ventilation system inside the tunnel reportedly remains functional, providing some hope for the survival of the trapped workers.

Officials said that they will have to dewater the tunnel before moving ahead. “First, we need to pump out the water and then use machinery to remove the mud blocking the tunnel,” Datta said, adding that this might take several days. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an engineer working on the site said there was still water seepage, which was hampering the operation. “There is still heavy seepage of water from the sides of the tunnel, making the task further difficult,” he said.

The state government has directed authorities to expedite the rescue work, but minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Monday said the chances of the workers’ survival were “very remote”.

“To be honest, the chances of their survival are very, very remote… When we shouted their names also, there was no response,” he said.

Authorities have ruled out the possibility of drilling from above to reach the trapped workers. S Venkateshwarlu, a senior forest official of Amrabad division, explained that the location falls within the Nallamala Tiger Sanctuary and would require excavating half a kilometre through protected forest land, making it unfeasible and against environmental regulations.

The tunnel is part of an ambitious irrigation project designed to provide 30 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) of water from the Srisailam reservoir to Nalgonda district. Its proposed length is 44km and around 10 km of it is left to be constructed. The project, which began in 2005 during the tenure of then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in undivided Andhra Pradesh, had recently resumed construction after a six-year halt that began in 2017.