The chances of survival for the eight individuals trapped in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel after a partial collapse two days ago remain “very remote,” Telangana Minister Jupally Krishna Rao stated on Monday.
He assured that every effort was being made to reach them, but the rescue operation posed challenges. A team of rat miners, who had previously rescued construction workers from the Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand in 2023, has joined the ongoing rescue efforts.
Krishna Rao said the operation to extricate the trapped individuals could take at least three to four days due to the large amounts of debris obstructing the site.
“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 metres short (of the mishap site). When we took photographs, the end (of the tunnel) was visible. And out of the 9-metre diameter (of the tunnel) — almost 30 feet, out of that 30 feet, mud has piled up up to 25 feet,” he told a news outlet.
“When we shouted their names also, there was no response… so, there is no chance at all,” he added.
The eight trapped workers have been identified as Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh from Jammu and Kashmir, Gurpreet Singh from Punjab, and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu, and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.
Among them, two are engineers, two are operators, and four are labourers.
Krishna Rao stated that debris removal was in progress with several machines deployed. He explained that the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), weighing several hundred tonnes, was displaced by nearly 200 metres due to the collapse and the force of gushing water.
“Even, even assuming they (the trapped persons) are in the lower part of the TBM machine, assuming even if it is intact on the top, where is the air (oxygen)? Underneath, how the oxygen will go?” he said, despite the continuous efforts to pump oxygen and dewater the tunnel.
“For removing all the debris and all that, in spite of all types of efforts, all types of organisations (working), it takes, I think it takes not less than 3-4 days (to extricate the people),” Rao said.
He and Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy have been overseeing the rescue operations.
The conveyor belt inside the tunnel is being restored to facilitate debris clearance. Despite relentless efforts by the Indian Army, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and other agencies, no breakthrough has been achieved so far.
The workers have been trapped for more than 48 hours after a section of the SLBC tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district collapsed on Saturday.
