South Central Railway has joined the rescue teams that are engaged in locating the eight persons who remain trapped in the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel for the past six days, with necessary equipment, a senior official said on Friday.

Railways has the expertise in cutting heavy metals using equipment such as plasma cutter and Brocho cutting machine, South Central Railway (SCR) Chief Public Relations officer A Sridhar said.

“District Collector, Nagar Kurnool sought the help of South Central Railway in rescue operation by clearing iron and steel debris that have been hindering the rescue works at the site,” A Sridhar told PTI.

He further said that the SCR quickly responded to the call and deployed two teams of metal cutting experts in the rescue mission. The first batch led by S Murali, Divisional Mechanical Engineer, consisting a senior Section Engineer, 13 Welders and two technicians from Secunderabad have reached the site and have taken up the required works. The second batch of experts also reached the site to support the first team, last night, he further said.

Meanwhile, Nagarkurnool Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Gaikwad said the metal cutting and debris clearing process is continuously going on.

“One team went into the tunnel at 7 AM. The clearing of debris has been going on since yesterday morning. Dewatering is also going on,” he said.

Telangana irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy on Thursday said the rescue and relief operations are in full swing, and that the operation would be completed in two days.

The Minister on Wednesday said the TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) that is struck inside will be cut into pieces by using gas cutters and removed. After this, the Army, Navy, Rat Miners and NDRF teams will make another serious effort to rescue the eight persons who are missing, without compromising their own safety.

Eight personnel working on the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel project were trapped after a portion of the tunnel collapsed on February 22.

The trapped persons have been identified as Manoj Kumar (UP), Sri Niwas (UP), Sunny Singh (J&K), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahau, all from Jharkhand.

Of the eight, two are engineers, two are operators and the remaining four are labourers from Jharkhand.

The two engineers and four labourers are employed by Jaiprakash Associates, the contracting firm of SLBC tunnel project. 

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