Best efforts to save the trapped: Uttam

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is working with the Indian Army, Navy, NDRF and all other tunnel experts in the country to save the eight persons who remained trapped since Saturday morning inside a tunnel after a section of it collapsed in the SLBC project, Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy said on Sunday. Reddy, who is camping at the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project site and overseeing the rescue operations, hoped that the trapped persons would be saved. 

He said the governmzzent was working with the Indian Army, Indian Navy, NDRF, and all other tunnel experts in the country to try and save the trapped people. “We are hoping and praying that they are safe, and we are hoping and praying that we can recover them, retrieve them, and save them,” Reddy said.

He said seepage of water, marsh and soil mounds were causing major hurdle in intensifying rescue operations. Blockade of the passing route due to a stranded tunnel bore machine was another big challenge to reach the trapped people. He said rescue teams were putting in best possible efforts to drill a parallel path to reach the trapped. Army, NDRF, Singareni mining teams and HYDRAA were taking part in the rescue operations, he said. Irrigation officials said the rescue teams travelled 13.5 km with all equipment to bring out the trapped workers but the mud and seepage water blocked their way from moving another 200 meters.

The Irrigation officials said simultaneous efforts are being taken to speed up the rescue operations by drilling from upside down and alongside the tunnel. Such operations require more machinery. High capacity pumping sets, cranes, bulldozers, fishing boats, etc, were being used. All the rescue teams were using loco trains to reach the spot where the incident took place, the officials added.