Hyderabad, March 25: More than a month after a portion of the roof of a tunnel collapsed in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district trapping eight persons, rescue workers recovered a second body on Tuesday.

The body was brought out of the partially-collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in the afternoon and was shifted to a government hospital at Nagarkurnool. It was identified as that of project engineer Manoj Kumar of Uttar Pradesh.

The body would be handed over to the family of the deceased after the autopsy. Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santosh said the state government would pay Rs 25 lakh to the family of the deceased.

This was the second body recovered from the tunnel since the accident that occurred on February 22.

The body of Gurpreet Singh, a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) operator from Punjab was recovered on March 9.

However, the search for the remaining missing persons was hampered by continuous seepage of water and slush.

Some rescue workers engaged in digging work in the last 50 meters of the 14-km-long tunnel noticed a foul smell from a spot near the loco train track on Tuesday morning and alerted the officials.

Various agencies involved in the rescue operation took up digging around the spot and recovered the body.

Multiple agencies, including the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), and Anvi Robotics were continuing the operation to trace the remaining six persons.

The missing persons are Sri Niwas (UP), Sunny Singh (J&K), Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.

The rescue workers continued digging at spots identified by the cadaver dog squad from Kerala. In hazardous areas near TBM, robotic technology is being deployed for safety reasons.

At a review meeting in Hyderabad on Monday, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy directed the officials to expedite the rescue operations.

He instructed Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari to appoint senior IAS officer Shiva Shankar Loteti as a Special Officer to continuously monitor the rescue operations.

The officials informed the Chief Minister that 25 agencies including various wings of the Central and State governments as well as private organisations are engaged in the rescue operations. A total of 700 personnel have been involved in the rescue operations.

The official said the rescue teams are removing the debris of collapsed rocks, dismantling TBM parts, and clearing soil mounds, silt, and water from the tunnel.

They explained that rescue operations were delayed due to poor air and light conditions as the accident occurred 14 kilometres from the inlet. About 30 metres of the accident area has been identified as the most dangerous zone. The officials also clarified that rescue operations will have to be carried out in the tunnel according to the scientific studies of the Geological Survey of India and the National Geophysical Research Institute.

The Chief Minister asked officials to take all necessary permissions from the Union government for the emergency works to be carried out in the tunnel.

New Delhi, March 21: London’s Heathrow Airport has been shut down for the day after a fire in a substation in the western part of the city led to a power outage and has left more than 16,000 homes without electricity.

According to British media over 150 people have also been evacuated.

In an X post on Friday morning (India time), the airport advised passengers not to travel and also to contact their respective airlines for further details.

“Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage. To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 11.59 pm on March 21,” the airport said.

An airport spokesperson told the Media, “Whilst fire crews are responding, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored… we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”

As per reports several flights have already been diverted while the airport authorities “expect significant disruption over the coming days”.

The reports have mentioned that the Scottish and Southern Electricity Network, which supplies power to nearly four million homes in central and southern England, as well as the north of Scotland, said the fire broke out at the North Hyde substation and that emergency services were on the scene.

The London Fire Brigade reported that a transformer inside the substation caught fire, prompting a large-scale emergency response. Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters were deployed to the scene. As a precaution, a 200-metre cordon has been established, and residents have been advised to keep doors and windows closed because of smoke.

Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, handling around 1,300 landings and take-offs each day. A record 83.9 million passengers passed through its terminals last year.

Hyderabad, March 10: Day after recovering one body from the debris, rescue teams continued intense efforts to search for the remaining seven people in the SLBC tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district on Monday.

Rescue teams from various agencies were undertaking digging work at another point identified by the cadaver sniffer dog squad from Kerala.

Rat miners from Uttarakhand, miners from Singareni Collieries and personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were carefully digging around the point with mini-excavators.

The search operation continued for the 17th day in the last 70 metres of the 14-km-long tunnel, where the eight workers were trapped after a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed on a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) on February 22.

Rescue workers on Sunday evening exhumed one body from the point identified by the cadaver dog squad.

The body was identified as that of TBM operator Gurpreet Singh. The 40-year-old hailed from Punjab and was working for Robbins Company, which supplies and operates tunnel boring machines.

The body was shifted to government hospital at Nagarkurnool and after completing medical and legal formalities was taken to his hometown in Punjab.

The seven people yet to be traced are Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh from Jammu and Kashmir and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.

The rescue agencies hoped that more bodies would be recovered soon based on the sniffer dog leads and the ground probing radar (GPR) scanning information provided by the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI).

The rescue workers continued to face challenges due to the debris of the TBM and the large amount of muck.

The TBM, which had a total length of 132.5 metres, was buried under silt and rocks in the February 22 incident.

The workers who were present in the front portion of the TBM were trapped while 42 others who were at the back end managed to come out of the tunnel.

The technicians from the South Central Railway (SCR) have so far cut the TBM into pieces for a length of about 60 metres.

The head portion of the TBM remained buried in the debris and the last 70 metres of the tunnel is still filled with 3 to 9 metres deep slush and other debris, posing a risk to the rescue workers.

While continuing dewatering and desilting, the rescue agencies were mobilising special equipment for the workers to carry out their work without the risk of being trapped in the slush.

Two cadaver dogs trained to locate missing humans and human bodies were brought from Kerala by a special helicopter three days ago.

According to officials, these dogs of the Belgian Malinois breed can detect smell even from a depth of 15 feet.

Indian Army, Navy, NDRF, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Singareni, SCR and other agencies are participating in the search operation.

The authorities on Saturday deployed robots for rescue operations in the tunnel as suggested by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy during his visit to the tunnel on March 2.

Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy announced the deployment of robotic technology to accelerate rescue operations.

Robots equipped with cameras, infrared sensors, and robotic arms have been deployed to assess conditions and aid extraction.

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy expressed condolences over the death of Gurpreet Singh and announced Rs 25 lakh ex-gratia to his next of kin.