Telangana tunnel collapse: Rescue ops underway, damaged conveyor made operational

Nagarkurnool (Telangana): The conveyor belt at the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel, under which eight persons are trapped for the past 11 days, was repaired and made operational on Tuesday. It will now make it easier for rescue personnel to shift muck and debris out, officials said.

The conveyor belt was damaged following the accident on February 22, they said.

The rescue operation was going on at a rapid pace on the 11th day of the accident on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a team of South Central Railway (SCR) comprising metal cutting experts cut the platform of the damaged Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) inside the tunnel, a SCR official said on Tuesday.

There was no breakthrough in the efforts to locate the eight trapped persons and rescuers are working in three shifts every day, an official told PTI. The process of removing debris and dewatering was going on, he said.

Nagarkurnool district Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Gaikwad said on Monday evening that the government is exploring the option of deploying robots in the rescue operation to prevent any threat to the rescue personnel.

Large quantities of slush and water inside the tunnel posed a challenge to the teams involved in the rescue operation.

Eight persons -- engineers and labourers -- have been trapped in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project tunnel since February 22 and experts from the NDRF, Indian Army, Navy and other agencies are making relentless efforts to pull them out to safety.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who visited the tunnel on Sunday, suggested to the officials leading the rescue operation to use robots inside the tunnel if necessary, to avoid any danger to the rescue personnel.

He had also said the rescue operations would gain momentum once the damaged conveyor belt is repaired.