Telengana tunnel collapse: Rescue teams plan to cut through collapsed section to reach workers

Nearly 36 hours after eight workers got trapped in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) after a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed near Domalpenta in Nagarkurnool district, multiple teams continued their rescue efforts.

Though the teams reached the site 13.5 km inside the SLBC tunnel on Sunday, they could not make headway beyond the tunnel boring machine and debris, where two engineers and six workers are trapped. Silt and water are posing a challenge to move further.

Meanwhile, the Telangana govt has drafted a six-member special team, including rat-hole miners, that rescued 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand in Nov 2023 for 17 days.

The special team is likely to reach Hyderabad late on Sunday and would be taken to the site straight from the airport. They would explore the possibility of rat-hole drilling and other techniques from various points to reach the trapped people.

Earlier in the day, the rescue teams, after reaching the site inside the tunnel, called out the names of the trapped workers, but there was no reply from the other end. Ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Jupally Krishna Rao, who are supervising the rescue effort and went inside the tunnel along with rescue teams, said there was a lot of debris and the tunnel boring machine was also damaged, with its parts scattered.

“There is water logging 2 km just before the 13.5 km collapse point. It is a challenging task, and due to this, our heavy equipment is not able to reach, and hence dewatering has to be completed. Then only the removal of debris can start. Iron cutters are being used. Additional motors have been used to speed up the dewatering process,” Jupally said.

Rescue teams reached the tunnel collapse site inside the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) on Sunday but were unable to make headway as silt and water hindered them in reaching the spot where the people are believed to have been trapped.

Four NDRF teams – one from Hyderabad and three from Vijayawada, comprising 138 members – 24 personnel of the Army, personnel of SDRF, 23 members from Singareni Collieries and HYDRAA reached up to the tunnel boring machine on Sunday, within 24 hours after the portion of the tunnel roof collapsed at about 8.30am on Saturday.

“Rescuers are trying to inch closer to the people trapped, and efforts are on to make way to the front side of the machine to save them by cutting through the gantry, reinforcement, and segments that collapsed. It is a nearly 200-metre long machine. We are hoping to save every life. The machine is presently over 13.5 km inside the tunnel,” irrigation advisor to the state govt, Aditya Nath Das, told.

Excise minister Jupally Krishna Rao later told reporters that the SLBC tunnel collapse was neither a human error nor the govt’s fault but an accident. He advised the opposition BRS not to politicise the accident. He said that the rescue operations were intensified with even a team from the Navy reaching the spot, in addition to other rescue teams. Senior officials from the Union ministry of road transport and national highways and other departments also arrived at the SLBC tunnel site to oversee the rescue operations.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said all options of cutting through, creating a way from the side of the machine or above or below it, were being explored, besides clearing the debris and continuous dewatering and oxygen pumping to sustain the trapped workers.

AICC leader Rahul Gandhi spoke to chief minister A Revanth Reddy, and the latter informed him of the speed with which the state govt responded to rescue the trapped people. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi expressed shock over the incident. “Deeply distressed to learn about the tunnel roof collapse in Telangana. My thoughts are with those trapped inside and their families at this difficult time,” he posted on ‘X’.

Telangana governor Jishnu Dev Varma, who is also monitoring the rescue operations, spoke to the Nagarkurnool district collector.