After being trapped for over two days under debris and muck, the chances of survival of the eight persons in the SLBC tunnel following a partial collapse appear bleak, even as every effort is made to reach them.Despite relentless efforts by the Indian Army, Navy, NDRF, and other agencies, no breakthrough has been achieved so far in the rescue operations as the teams had to navigate through thick muck, tangled iron rods, and cement blocks to reach the accident spot in the tunnel to extricate the persons who have remained trapped for over two day inside the tunnel after a section of it collapsed in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district on Saturday morning.
A team of 584 skilled personnel of Army, Navy, Singareni Collieries and other agencies along with central and state disaster response teams, have conducted tunnel inspections seven times, official sources said adding gas cutters to cut the metal rod are continuously working.
Sniffer dogs were also brought in to locate those inside the tunnel. However, due to the presence of water, they were unable to move forward.
The incident kicked up a political row with BRS Working President KT Rama Rao hitting out at Chief Minister Revanth Reddy in a social media post, saying the CM who is actively participating in MLC poll campaign has no time to visit the accident spot.
Reacting to that, Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy claimed that the opposition leader did not go to Sircilla where seven people died due to the Kaleshwaram project. The Minister added that two of his cabinet colleagues were at the tunnel site overseeing the rescue works.
