HYDERABAD: Eight people were trapped inside when a portion of the tunnel roof at Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) collapsed on Saturday morning near Domalpenta in Telangana’s Nagarku-nool district.
Sources said 60 workers were on site when the roof suddenly caved in by about 200 metres inside the tunnel, which has a depth of 500 ft. While 52 of them managed to come out to safety, with some of them taken to hospital with injuries, eight workers remained trapped deep inside the tunnel.
These included Jaiprakash Associates Limited project engineer Manoj Kumar and field engineer Sri Niwas, both from Uttar Pradesh, four labourers from Jharkhand – Sandeep Sahu, Jataks, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu – and two machine operators of Robbins India Company – Sunny Singh from J&K and Gurpreet Singh from Punjab.
According to sources, no communication had been established with the trapped people till reports last came in. Noises of shifting of boulders were heard till evening, indicating that the roof in collapsed areas was still unstable, the sources said.
PM Narendra Modi dialled chief minister A Revanth Reddy to inquire about the mishap and assured all possible assistance from the Centre, including deployment of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel, for the ongoing rescue operation.
According to senior irrigation officials, the tunnel roof collapsed due to a sudden leakage of water and soil, covering nearly 13 km of the excavation site. The SLBC tunnel is about 44 km long from the Srisailam dam’s left bank.
The accident occurred about 13 km from the mouth of the tunnel. An earth fracture on the side of the tunnel wall caused the water and mud to gush in, forcing the workers to scramble to safety.
Jaiprakash Associates and Robbins India, responsible for tunnel boring, said the accident took place within 30 minutes of taking up the work at 8 am. Those positioned near the tunnel boring machine managed to escape, while workers in the front section of the tunnel got trapped, representatives of the companies said. The works were immediately halted, and supervisors quickly evacuated as many workers as possible.
Officials said the ventilation system inside the tunnel remained functional, ensuring oxygen supply to the trapped workers. The Army teams are expected to arrive at the site by Saturday night.
