The South Central Railway (SCR) joined rescue efforts to locate eight workers trapped in the collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel for the past six days. The railway teams brought special equipment to help clear metal debris, a senior official said on Friday.
SCR chief public relations officer A Sridhar stated that the railway has expertise in cutting heavy metals using tools such as plasma cutters and Broco cutting machines. The Nagarkurnool District Collector requested their assistance in clearing iron and steel debris that was blocking rescue operations and the SCR sent two teams of metal-cutting experts.
A senior police officer confirmed that metal cutting and debris removal were underway and a rescue team entered the tunnel at 7 am on Friday, along with the dewatering efforts.
Telangana Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, on Thursday, said that the rescue was expected to be completed in two days. Officials plan to cut the stuck Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) into pieces using gas cutters before making another attempt to reach the trapped workers. The Army, Navy, Rat Miners, and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are also involved in the mission.
The tunnel collapse occurred on February 22, trapping eight workers inside. The missing persons are identified as Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh from Jammu & Kashmir, Gurpreet Singh from Punjab, and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu, and Anuj Sahau, all from Jharkhand.
Among the trapped workers, two are engineers, two are machine operators, and four are labourers. They were employed by Jaiprakash Associates, the contracting firm handling the SLBC tunnel project.
Written by Syeda Haniya
