Hyderabad, Feb 25: Rescue teams involved in the intensive operation to pull out eight persons trapped in an under-construction tunnel which collapsed in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district for three days are re-drawing the strategy to move forward in the last stretch of 40-50 metres.

Facing several hurdles, the authorities have roped in experts from the Geological Survey of India (GSI), the National Geographical Research Institute (NGRI), and the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) to assess the situation and suggest the way forward for rescue operations.

Multiple teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Army, Larsen and Toubro (L&T) and various agencies are moving cautiously as the stability of the tunnel has to be taken into consideration while undertaking any excavation work.

While continuing dewatering, the rescue teams were waiting for the experts to suggest the next step.

Various agencies including the Army, Navy, SDRF, National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation, and Singareni Collieries Company Limited have mapped out the tunnel operation. They prepared a detailed diagram to help prepare a rescue strategy to locate and reach eight trapped men.

Officials said the conveyor belt used to bring back debris from the tunnel after excavation was not working.

Minister for Roads and Buildings Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said the efforts were on to repair the belt.

Deployment of advanced equipment like endoscopic and robotic cameras to trace the trapped men has not yielded results. According to officials, the robotic camera is not working.

Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) broke into two after a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed on the morning of February 22.

The tail unit of TBM was found 50 metres before the end of the 14 km long tunnel. The head portion of the tunnel has a safe container for workers to take shelter in an emergency. It was not known if the trapped men could enter the container when the roof collapsed and water seepage became intensive.

The drone was also not accessible after the TBM tail unit. The 50-metre area is filled with sediments and debris hampering further movement of the rescue teams for the last 24 hours.

The tunnel map prepared by the rescue teams shows that the loco track is accessible up to 12 km though the track is available for a length of 13.5 km.

There is no water stagnation in the tunnel till 10.7 km point. The teams found 1.5 feet water at 10.95 km There is 2 to 2.5 feet water at 11.30 km.

The NDRF team has also deployed a trained sniffer dog for the rescue operation but the same could not be pressed into service due to slush.

A team of expert rat miners, known for a successful rescue operation in the Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand in 2023, has arrived, but their services have not yet been used. In Uttarakhand, the team rescued 41 workers who were trapped inside the tunnel for 17 days.

The team members, however, said that the situation in Telangana is different. In the Uttarakhand tunnel, it was rock and they used hand tools to reach trapped workers through small pits. However, the SLBC tunnel is filled with water and mud.

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and Tourism Minister Jupally visited the tunnel and reviewed the rescue operations with various agencies.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said he invited Harpal Singh, former engineer-in-chief of Border Road Organisation to share his expertise and knowledge for the rescue operation. The minister quoted Harpal Singh as saying he had never seen such a complicated tunnel accident.

Two workers were injured and eight others were trapped when a portion of the tunnel 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 metres. 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 and 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: 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.