Nagarkurnool (Telangana): Officials recovered the body of another worker from the partially collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project tunnel on Tuesday, bringing the total number of retrieved bodies to two.
Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santhosh confirmed that the body was “tentatively” identified as Manoj Kumar, a project engineer from Uttar Pradesh. The remains were transported to a government hospital for standard post-mortem procedures.
“The family members will be informed, and the mortal remains will be sent to the deceased’s hometown,” the collector stated. As per Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s instructions, an ex-gratia payment of Rs 25 lakh will be provided to the victim’s family.
The tunnel collapse on February 22 trapped a total of eight individuals, including engineers and labourers from various states. The workers identified are from Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Jharkhand.
A rescue official revealed that the body was extracted after search personnel detected a foul odour in the early morning hours. Notably, the recovery location differed from areas previously searched by sniffer dogs.
Gurpreet Singh, a Tunnel Boring Machine operator, was the first body recovered on March 9 and returned to his family in Punjab. Currently, 700 personnel from 25 state, central, and private agencies continue the complex search operation. During a recent meeting, officials briefed the Chief Minister about the challenging rescue conditions, highlighting the tunnel’s depth of 14 kilometres and poor ventilation.
“The search operation will continue until all trapped persons are located,” Chief Minister Reddy asserted. Four excavators have been deployed to expedite the search efforts, with officials identifying a 30-metre area at the accident site as particularly hazardous.