Hyderabad, 24 February (H.S.): The chances of the eight trapped persons in a collapsed tunnel in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project in Telangana's Nagarkurnool district have been extremely remote. The tunnel collapsed about 50 meters short of the mishap site, and mud had piled up to 25 feet from the 9-meter diameter.

Despite shouting their names, no response was received, leaving no chance of survival. The trapped persons are Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh from Jammu and Kashmir, Gurpreet Singh from Punjab, Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu, and Anuj Sahu from Jharkhand. Two of the eight are engineers, two operators, and four laborers. The process of clearing the debris is underway with several machinery in place.

The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) was almost flushed away by about 200 meters after the collapse due to gushing water. Despite efforts by the Indian Army, NDRF, and other agencies, no breakthrough has been achieved in the rescue operations to extricate the trapped persons. The conveyor belt is being restored at the tunnel to clear the debris.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar