Hyderabad: The excavation work on the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) has overcome a major hurdle by successfully moving beyond the problem stretch where eight workers had lost their lives after a tunnel cave-in during February last year.
The breakthrough will allow the government to achieve their target of completing the irrigation project by June 2028.
The 44-km-long SLBC tunnel is a critical irrigation and drinking water initiative in Telangana, which aims to transfer Krishna River water from the Srisailam reservoir to drought-prone Nalgonda and Nagarkurnool districts.
Conducting a review meeting on Sunday, October 4, Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy commended the efforts of the officials involved in the project. He said that over 700 metres of tunnel has been excavated since restart of the work in February this year.
This includes approximately 450 metres from the outlet (Devarakonda side) and 250 metres from the inlet (Srisailam side).
The tunnel is now 79 per cent complete with 9.1 km of excavation remaining.
Colonel Parikshit Mehra, an Indian Army tunnel expert who is heading the tunnel operations, said that excavation had deliberately been slowed down in the initial months due to weak ground, rock bursts, and the need to prevent another accident.
The diversion point where the tunnel-boring machine had been stuck proved particularly challenging and was navigated by installing 140-mm seamless pipes to form an umbrella canopy for extra support during excavation.
Hauling the excavated material for up to 21 km also remains a major constraint; however, when material is left to accumulate, it forces work to shut down until the material is cleared.
Breakthrough in Tunnel-1 is expected to be achieved by May-June 2028.
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