Hyderabad: In a major breakthrough regarding the SLBC tunnel collapse rescue operation, the conveyor belt, which was dysfunctional for the past 11 days, has been repaired. With this, the rescue operation will gain momentum as the machinery can run till the tail end of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) where the eight workers are believed to be trapped.
It will now make it easier for rescue personnel to shift muck and debris out, officials said.
Meanwhile, a team of South Central Railway (SCR) comprising metal cutting experts cut the platform of the damaged Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) inside the tunnel, a SCR official said on Tuesday.
On February 22, a portion of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Nagarkurnool collapsed, locking eight workers, including two engineers, inside the debris and slush.
Eight persons–engineers and labourers have been trapped under the collapsed roof of the SLBC tunnel since 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 Sahu, all from Jharkhand.
The previous day, Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy, along with the state irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, had expressed hope that the damaged conveyor belt would be repaired by Monday. He inspected the rescue operations at the SLBC tunnel roof collapse area and said, “Officials say it will take another two to three days to resolve the issue. They have not yet come to a complete assessment of where the eight trapped workers are and where the conveyor belt was damaged.”
Terming the accident as unfortunate and unexpected, CM Revanth appealed to the opposition parties not to politicise the issue and unite to work together. “This is a disaster. The state government is determined to solve this problem. However, be it the government or the opposition… this is the time to show empathy to the affected families and support them,” he said.
Previous govt neglected SLBC tunnel works: CM
Lashing out at the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, CM Revanth disclosed that no funds had been released to Jaypee Group, the company responsible for constructing the SLBC tunnel. Moreover, there were pending electricity bills that led to a power showdown and ultimately the works stopped.
“As soon as the Congress government came to power, swift action was taken to complete the project. Pending electricity bills were cleared, technical experts were consulted to resolve issues, and necessary spare parts were procured from the United States for the machinery,” he said.
The chief minister also said that during the BRS government, there was a reported accident on power generation, but the news never came out in public. “When I, as the president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee tried to visit the accident site, I was stopped,” CM Revanth claimed.
Rescue operation with experts from 11 agencies including the Indian Army, NDRF, SDRF, GSI, SCCL, fire services, police, irrigation department, NGRI, HYDRAA, SCR plasma cutters, Rat Miners, L&T, Navayuga, JP, have been engaged for more than a week to rescue the workers trapped due to the SLBC tunnel collapse.
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