Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) senior leader T Harish Rao and his team sat on a sit-in protest in Nagarkurnool after they were stopped by the Telangana police from visiting the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel roof collapse accident site.
The BRS leader and his team were on their way to the district where the roof of the SLBC tunnel collapsed on February 22, trapping six workers, including two engineers.
Before proceeding to the tunnel accident site, Harish Rao, in an interaction with the media, accused the Telangana government of failing to handle the SLBC tunnel roof collapse incident.
The former minister criticised the Congress-led government over the lack of swift response and coordination with agencies deployed for the rescue operation following the tunnel roof collapse.
“It’s been six days and yet there has been no breakthrough in contacting the eight trapped workers. Are their lives insignificant for the chief minister?” the Siddipet MLA asked before heading to the incident site.
SLBC tunnel roof collapse
Eight workers, including two engineers, have been trapped since February 22 after a portion of the SLBC tunnel roof collapsed.
The accident occurred 14 km inside the tunnel. While the rescue teams had already reached 13.5 km, they could not advance further for the last two days due to mud, debris of the Tunnel Boring Machine and seepage of water.
Army, Navy, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and rat hole miners were engaged in intensified efforts to remove silt and debris from the SLBC tunnel. The rescue workers have been using gas cutters to detach damaged parts of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM).
The rescue agencies intensified the operation late Wednesday after a high-level meeting attended by military tunnel experts and state ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy decided to move ahead with a concrete action plan. The meeting decided to go for full-fledged dewatering and desilting.
Minister Utta Kumar Reddy expressed the hope that the rescue operation would be completed within two days and that new strategies were being implemented to mitigate challenges inside the tunnel.
So far, there has been no communication or response from the eight trapped workers. Oxygen is continuously being pumped, the minister said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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