Excelsior Correspondent
NAGARKURNOOL (TELANGANA), Feb 23: Despite relentless efforts by the Indian Army, NDRF and other agencies, no breakthrough was achieved today in the rescue operations to extricate eight persons who have remained trapped for over 30 hours inside a tunnel after a section of it collapsed in the SLBC project, with prayers on for their well-being.
Telangana Minister J Krishna Rao told reporters that the chances of survival under the circumstances are “not that good.”
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“Muck has piled up too high inside the tunnel, making it impossible to walk through. They (rescuers) are using rubber tubes and wooden planks to navigate through it,” Krishna Rao, who went inside the tunnel, told reporters.
“We can’t say. We are hopeful, but the kind of incident that took place was very serious and chances are we cannot say. The chances of survival we cannot predict. Chances are not that good,” he said when asked about the chances of survival of the trapped persons.
Krishna Rao said some survivors swam across the tunnel after the incident happened.
Videos released by the State Government showed rescuers navigating through thick muck, tangled iron rods, and cement blocks.
Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy said there were about 70 people working in the tunnel on Saturday morning when a part of it collapsed. Most of them could escape and return using their internal train or locomotive there after the incident.
“But eight people have been missing since yesterday. We are hoping and praying that they are safe…” Reddy said.
The final 200 meters stretch of the collapsed section of the tunnel has been filled with water and silt, the Minister said, indicating the difficulty that the rescue teams are faced with to reach the spot.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said getting heavy machinery into the tunnel became difficult due to the terrain, but officials are working on alternate methods to remove the debris.
The trapped persons have been identified as Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh (Jammu, J&K), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.
Of the eight, two are engineers, two operators and four labourers.
Nagarkurnool District Collector B Santhosh, who is supervising the rescue operation, said four NDRF teams—one from Hyderabad and three from Vijayawada, comprising 138 members, 24 personnel of the army, personnel of SDRF, besides 23 members from SCCL along with equipment besides members of the infra firm are engaged in the rescue operation.
“As of now, we don’t have communication with them (those trapped),” the collector said on Sunday afternoon.
A NDRF official told a TV channel that a team had last night went inside the tunnel.
There is lot of debris and the TBM is also damaged and its parts are scattered inside.
“There is water logging 2 km just before the 13.5 km point. It is a challenging task and due to this our heavy equipment is not able to reach till the last point and hence dewatering has to be completed which will enable the equipment to reach ahead. Then only the removal of debris can start. Additional motors have been used to speed up the dewatering process,” he said.
The team after reaching 13.5 km called those trapped, but did not get any reply from them, he said. After this point there is still a 200 meter patch and it is only after reaching near them would their condition be known, he added. (PTI)
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