Efforts to rescue eight people trapped in a collapsed section of a tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district entered day four on Tuesday, with experts temporarily halting heavy excavation due to an increase in the amount of slush and mud at the accident site.

Teams of experts that had gone into the tunnel yesterday have said the slush wall has now increased by about a metre. They believe that there could be structural stability issues if intensive excavation is undertaken, which could not only further endanger the trapped workers but also risk the lives of the rescue teams.

Chris Cooper, an Australian tunnel expert, on Monday also said the entire area appears unsettled and that it might be too dangerous to continue with heavy-duty digging.

About 3,200 litres of water is also flooding the tunnel every minute, mixing with the vast quantities of sand, rock, and debris to make more mud and slush. It, however, is not a cause of concern as the tunnel is being de-watered.

The rescuers have so far not been able to make any contact with the eight trapped men, who got stuck after a part of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel collapsed on Saturday morning. Among them are two engineers, two operators and four labourers.

They have been identified as Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand, Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh from Jammu and Kashmir, and Gurpreet Singh from Punjab.

‘Very, Very, Very, Very Remote’ Chance Of Survival

Telangana Minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Monday said the chances of the survival of eight trapped men were “very, very, very, very remote”.

“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”, he told the news agency PTI.

“When we shouted their names also, there was no response…so, there is no chance at all,” Mr Rao, who oversaw the rescue operations along with Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, said.

He also said that 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 trapped men.