8 workers trapped inside Telangana tunnel for over 30 hours, huge pile of debris affects rescue operation

Nagarkurnool (Telangana): The rescue operation led by Indian Army, National Disaster Response Force and other agencies to rescue eight workers trapped inside a tunnel here is being delayed due to poor light, huge pile of debris and water logging. The workers are trapped for over 30 hours inside the tunnel after a section of it collapsed in the SLBC project.

The trapped persons have been identified as Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh (Jammu & Kashmir), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand. Of the eight, two are engineers, two are operators and four are labourers.

Telangana Minister J Krishna Rao told reporters that the chances of survival under the circumstances are "not that good." 

“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," said Krishna Rao after inspecting the collapsed tunnel.

"We can't say. We are hopeful, but the kind of incident that took place was very serious and chances are we can not say. The chances of survival we can not predict," he said while commenting on the workers’ survival inside the tunnel.
He added that some survivors swam across the tunnel after a portion of the construction collapsed.

In the videos released by the Telangana government, rescuers were seen 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. Majority of them had a narrow escape using their internal train or locomotive there after the incident. He confirmed that eight people have been missing since yesterday. 

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. He added that the rescue operation using heavy machinery is not practical due to the terrain, but officials are working on alternate methods to remove the debris.

“The Irrigation Department, Disaster Response Teams, and Defense personnel are coordinating efforts, with oxygen being continuously pumped inside and motors deployed for dewatering,” he added. 

A source told PTI that the teams that managed to wade up to the 13th kilometre, where the tunnel had collapsed, called out the names of the trapped individuals, but there was no response, sources said.

Over 180 people are currently engaged in the rescue operation. 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 currently deployed.

"As of now, we don't have communication with them (those trapped)," the collector said on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, a NDRF official who went inside the tunnel told a TV Channel that there is lot of debris and the TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) is also damaged.

"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.

Meanwhile, the Engineer Task Force (ETF) of the Bison Division of Indian Army from Secunderabad has been deployed in the rescue operations.

"The Indian Army is working closely with all stakeholders for expediting the rescue efforts. Indian Army's priority remains the swift and safe extraction of those trapped inside,' a defence release said.