Hyderabad: Hours after eight persons were trapped inside an under-construction tunnel in the Nagarkurnool district of Telangana, there rescue operations have started in the area. The incident took place after a portion of the roof fell on Saturday. While the rescue teams have started with their rescue operations, a team from Indian Navy is also expected to reach by today midnight.
Earlier, Speaking to news agency PTI, Nagarkurnool District Collector B Santhosh said four NDRF teams–one from Hyderabad and three from Vijayawada, have reached the spot with required equipment apart members of the infra firm. They are also make strategy on how to take the rescue operations forward.
8 persons trapped 14 km inside tunnel
“As of now, we don’t have communication with them. The rescuers will go inside and see, and then we will be able to tell,” news agency PTI quoted him as saying earlier. Eight people heve been left trapped around 14 km inside the tunnel, while they were working on Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project.
As per officials as many as 51 workers were were working on the excavation work in the a hill, which is around 120 km from Hyderabad, when the incident took place at around 8.30 am. Most of the workers escaped from the spot after the tragedy, while some, including two site engineers, were trapped behind a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) in the tunnel.
Heavy equipment not able to reach the last point: NDRF official
Speaking to the agency, an NDRF official said, “There is water logging 2 km just before the 13.5 km point. It is a challenging task and due to this our heavy equipment is not able to reach the last point and hence dewatering has to be completed which will enable the equipment to reach ahead. Then only the removal of debris can start. Additional motors have been used to speed up the dewatering process.”
