Telangana tunnel collapse: Rescue teams inch closer to trapped workers

Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy briefed the Chief Minister on the current situation at the tunnel, providing detailed updates

Rescuers have inched closer to the engineers and workers trapped inside a tunnel after a section of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal project collapsed 24 hours ago, with operations underway to extricate them, officials said on Sunday.

The teams in the accident site at Nagarkurnool district, about 150 km from here, called out the names of the trapped people, but there was no response, sources said.

The rescue personnel were able to reach up to the 13th km inside the tunnel, a short distance from where the mishap occurred around 8.30 am on Saturday.

According to official sources, state Ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy and J Krishna Rao have left for the site on to oversee the rescue operations.

"Rescuers will have to clear the debris filled with iron, muck and cement blocks. The teams were able to reach up to the 13th km where the collapse occurred. They are assessing the situation at the place where the Tunnel Boring Machine was last placed on Saturday," sources told PTI.

"The (rescue) teams have reached almost up to the last point (till the machine). We are assessing the situation," a senior police official said on Sunday.

Of the eight, six (two engineers and four labourers) belong to Jaiprakash Associates and two are employees of a US company.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called up Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to inquire about the incident and assured all possible assistance from the Centre for the ongoing rescue operation.

On Sunday, the rescue operation was on, involving the NDRF, SDRF, Army personnel and the company's employees.

After the construction work resumed recently, as many as 50 persons went inside the tunnel in the first shift along with the tunnel boring machine which is 200 meter long, on Saturday morning.

They went up to 13.5 km inside the tunnel when the roof collapsed suddenly. Eight members including two engineers, who were ahead of the machine got trapped while 42 others ran towards the outside gate of the tunnel and came out.

Uttam Kumar Reddy had said work on the "world's longest tunnel of 44 kms" began to draw water from the Srisailam project to irrigate four lakh acres in the Nalgonda district. Of the 44 km, work on about 9.50 km remains to be carried out, he said.

Revanth Reddy was constantly reviewing the situation and he instructed the officials to expedite the rescue operation to save those trapped, the government said.