Hyderabad, Feb 24: Teams engaged in the operation to rescue eight trapped workers from an under-construction tunnel which collapsed on Saturday in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district, received no response when they called out names of the trapped men, state Minister Jupally Krishna Rao admitted.

The Excise and Tourism Minister, who went inside the tunnel to have a closer look at the rescue operation, told media persons that the rescue workers called out names of the men who were trapped in the tunnel after a portion of the roof collapsed on Saturday. “Unfortunately, there was no response to these calls,” he said.

Krishna Rao, who along with Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy is supervising the rescue operation, said the rescue teams were very close to the point where the accident happened.

The minister described the situation inside the tunnel as horrifying and admitted that the chances of survivors are very remote. “Things do not look hopeful,” he said.

Krishna Rao said since the end of the tunnel was visible, he believes the chances of finding the trapped men alive are very remote.

The minister said though the rescue teams were very close to the spot, muck and debris were hampering their efforts.

Meanwhile, Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and former minister K. Jana Reddy reviewed the situation at the tunnel on Monday.

Venkat Reddy expressed the hope that trapped men will be rescued by the teams engaged in the operation for 48 hours. “We have hopes. In Uttarakhand, 41 workers were rescued from a tunnel after 17 days,” he said.

The minister said the government was taking help of experts from various agencies both in India and abroad for the rescue operation.

Multiple teams of the Army, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) and the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) were engaged in the operation.

Two teams of construction major Larsen & Toubro with advanced equipment on Monday joined the rescue efforts.

L&T teams, which have the experience of the rescue operation in Uttarakhand, have brought endoscopic and robotic cameras.

Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santosh said the rescue teams had to cover a distance of another 40 metres to reach the point where the roof had collapsed. This stretch of the tunnel is filled with muck, making further advance of the rescue operations difficult.

The L&T teams will deploy endoscopic and robotic cameras to sift through the muck and communicate with survivors, if any, at the fag end of the tunnel.

They used the same equipment for rescue operations after the Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel collapse in Uttarakhand, where 41 workers trapped inside were rescued after 17 days in 2023.

More than 48 hours after a portion of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel collapsed, the fate of eight men including two engineers and two machine operators was not known.

The trapped men are from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Jammu & Kashmir.

Project manager Manoj Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Machine engineer Srinivas (Uttar Pradesh) and machine operators Sunny Singh (J&K) and Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) are among those trapped.

The four workers from Jharkhand are Sandeep Sahu, Santosh Sahu, Anju Sahu, and Jagta Khes.

Hyderabad, Feb 24: Two teams of construction major Larsen & Toubro with advanced equipment on Monday joined the operation to rescue eight trapped workers from an under-construction tunnel, a portion of which collapsed on February 22 in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district.

L&T, which has the experience of the rescue operation in Uttarakhand, has brought endoscopic and robotic cameras

Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santosh said the rescue teams had to cover a distance of another 40 meters to reach the point where the roof had collapsed. This stretch of the tunnel is filled with muck, making further advance of the rescue operations difficult.

The L&T teams will deploy endoscopic and robotic cameras to sift through the muck and communicate with survivors, if any, at the fag end of the tunnel.

The teams used the same equipment for rescue operations after the Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel collapsed in Uttarakhand, where 41 workers trapped inside were rescued after 17 days in 2023.

Multiple teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Army and other agencies continued rescue operation on Monday.

More than 48 hours after a portion of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel collapsed, the fate of eight men, including two engineers and two machine operators, was not known.

Teams of the Indian Air Force and Navy are also reaching Srisailam in three helicopters from Visakhapatnam to join the rescue operation.

NDRF personnel managed to reach the tunnel boring machine at the 14th-km point but heaps of debris hampered the search operation.

The tunnel remained flooded with water for about two kilometres, making the rescue task more challenging for more than 300 rescue workers. Rescue teams deployed heavy motors for dewatering.

The operation encountered more problems as the loco train to move into the tunnel broke down at the 11th kilometre. Efforts were on to fix the problem.

NDRF, Army, Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) were making intensive efforts to dewater and desilt the tunnel.

Ministers Uttam Kumar Reddy and Jupally Krishna Rao, who were supervising the rescue operation, went into the tunnel by a loco train on Sunday. Jupally Krishna Rao told media persons after coming out of the tunnel that the chances of finding the trapped persons alive were remote.

Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy said all efforts were being made to pull out the trapped men safely. He said the possibility of reaching the spot by digging the tunnel from the top was being explored.

Two workers were injured and eight others were trapped when a portion of the tunnel was being dug as part of SLBC collapsed near Domalapenta.

A total of 50 persons were working on the left-side tunnel when the roof collapsed for three meters. The accident occurred at the 14th km point.

While 42 workers came out of the tunnel, the remaining eight were trapped. Those trapped include two engineers and two machine operators.

The trapped men are from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.

Project manager Manoj Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Machine engineer Srinivas (Uttar Pradesh) and machine operators Sunny Singh (J&K) and Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) are among those trapped. The four workers from Jharkhand are Sandeep Sahu, Santosh Sahu, Anju Sahu and Jagta Khes.

Mumbai: A massive fire broke out in Mumbai’s Marine Lines on Saturday. The blaze rupted on the top floor of a residential building, Marine Chambers. The building is located near Gol Masjid.

The fire broke out at around 12.30 pm on Saturday. After receiving information, several fire tenders reached the spot. Senior officials also rushed to the place where the blaze erupted.

Visuals of the fire also surfaced online. In the video, an envelope of black smoke could seen billowing out of the building. This led to panic among the locals.

A firefighting operation is currently underway.

The reason for the blaze is not yet known. There are no reports of any injuries.