In Telangana, army rescue teams are to reach the tunnel where eight workers were trapped after the roof of a tunnel in the Nagarkurnool district collapsed. State Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy informed the media that the Army help sought to rescue the trapped workers, and the rescue teams are likely to reach the tunnel. Over a dozen workers were injured when the roof of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) Tunnel collapsed after the workers began work with the help of the Tunnel Bore Mission.

The incident happened near Domalapenta in Nagarkurnool District of Telangana due to the slippage of a roof segment that was used to seal seepage at the 14-km inlet of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal Tunnel. Mr. Reddy informed us that the rescue teams of the Singareni Coal Collieries and the Disaster Management Teams are already at the site. The Minister said the state government is making all-out efforts to bring the trapped workers out safely.

The rescue operations have gained momentum to save the 8 trapped workers inside the Srisailam Left Bank Canal Tunnel as the Disaster Management Teams reached the site near Domalapenta in Nagarkurnool district. As per the authorities, the tunnel is filled with water for about 8 kilometres inside. However, they informed us that there was no problem for the trapped people to get air circulation inside the tunnel. The works on the SLBC Tunnel had been resumed only a few days ago, and project senior officials along with workers went inside the tunnel at around 8 AM this morning.

The trapped persons include a project engineer, a site engineer, two machine operators, and four workers, and all of them hailed from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu Kashmir, and Punjab states. Though dozens of workers escaped to safety immediately after a part of the roof collapsed, these eight persons could not do so as they remained at the front of the Tunnel Bore Machine when water obstructed their way out.

Now, everybody pinned their hopes on the Army Rescue teams, which may reach the site tonight. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Chief Minister Revanth Reddy over the phone and enquired about the incident at the SLBC tunnel. The Prime Minister assured the central government’s full support to the state government.