NEW DELHI: Over 500 rescuers, including a combined team of skilled personnel from the Army, Navy, and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL),continued their efforts on Friday to locate eight individuals trapped in the SLBC tunnel after a section of it collapsed six days ago. Despite intensive operations, no breakthrough has been achieved so far.
Nagarkurnool district collector B Santhosh refuted reports suggesting that the NGRI’s ground-penetrating radar (GPR) had captured images of human bodies within the debris.
“We have noticed that some fake news is going on that some bodies have been found. That news is not true. I request the Media also. If there is any such news, we will inform from the collector’s side,” the collector told reporters.
Officials said that specialised rat miners are attempting to penetrate the tunnel and confirm what they are.
Meanwhile, the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) stated that it has deployed 200 personnel to assist in the rescue operation as per government directives. Similarly, the South Central Railway (SCR) has sent its teams equipped with advanced tools such as plasma cutters and Brocho cutting machines, according to SCR chief public relations officer A Sridhar.
Nagarkurnool superintendent of police Vaibhav Gaikwad reported that metal cutting and debris removal are underway. “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.
Irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy had earlier announced that the trapped tunnel boring machine (TBM) will be dismantled using gas cutters. Following this, personnel from the Army, Navy, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and rat miners will make another effort to reach the missing individuals.
What happened and who is trapped in the tunnel collapse
The incident occurred on February 22 when a section of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel collapsed, leaving eight workers trapped.
The missing individuals have been identified as Manoj Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Sri Niwas (Uttar Pradesh), Sunny Singh (Jammu & Kashmir), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab), and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu, and Anuj Sahu (all from Jharkhand).
Among the trapped, two are engineers, two are operators, and the remaining four are laborers. The engineers and four laborers are employed by Jaiprakash Associates, the contracting firm responsible for the SLBC tunnel project.
