Telangana: Eight workers remain trapped inside the collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district, with rescue teams battling against severe obstacles to reach them.
The tunnel partially collapsed on Saturday morning at the 14km mark while 50 workers were inside. While 42 managed to escape, the remaining eight, including two engineers and two machine operators, remain stuck under the debris.
A large-scale rescue operation involving over 300 personnel is underway, including teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Singareni Collieries, and the Army. Specialised rat miners—previously deployed in the Silkyara tunnel rescue in Uttarakhand—have also been brought in.
Despite relentless efforts, the rescue faces major challenges due to waterlogging and debris inside the tunnel. Rescuers have reached 13km in but have been blocked by flooding over the next two kilometers. Heavy motors have been deployed to pump out the water, while a loco train being used for transport inside the tunnel broke down at the 11-km point, further delaying operations.
Telangana Ministers Uttam Kumar Reddy and Jupally Krishna Rao, who are overseeing the operation, stated that the situation remains critical. “The chances of survival are very remote, but every effort is being made to reach them,” said Rao. He added that the teams had not heard any voices from inside, but oxygen was being supplied in the tunnel.
The trapped workers belong to different states, including Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir. The Telangana government had resumed tunnel construction only four days before the collapse, and now, with time running out, rescue teams are racing against the clock to save the trapped men.
