Nagarkurnool: The process of dewatering and removal of soil was underway continuously as part of the search operation to locate six persons who remained untraced in the partially collapsed SLBC project tunnel here, officials said on Sunday.
The soil was being sent out of the tunnel using a conveyor belt. Steel inside the tunnel which is a hindrance to the search operation was also being removed and shifted out in a loco train, an official statement said. IAS officer Shivashankar Lotheti, who had been appointed as special officer to supervise the search operation, wished the rescue teams on the occasion of Ugadi, the Telugu New Year.
He specially appreciated the rescue personnel for participating in the operation, staying away from their families, despite the Telugu New Year, it said. The search operation has been going on relentlessly from day one with the participation of personnel from Army, NDRF, SDRF, railways, state-run miner Singareni Collieries, professors of IIT, Madras, scientists from National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Geological Survey of India (GSI), rat hole miners, cadaver dogs of Kerala police and others, it said.
A total of eight individuals—including engineers and labourers—were trapped in the SLBC project tunnel when a portion of it collapsed on February 22. The missing individuals have been identified as Manoj Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Sri Niwas (Uttar Pradesh), Sunny Singh (Jammu & Kashmir), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab), and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu, and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.
Of the eight trapped, the bodies of two—Gurpreet Singh and Manoj Kumar—have been recovered.