Telangana Tunnel Collapse: Rescuers are yet to make contact with eight persons trapped inside an under-construction tunnel in the Nagarkurnool district of Telangana after a portion of its roof collapsed on Saturday.
“As of now, we don’t have communication with them (those trapped),” Nagarkurnool District Collector B Santhosh was quoted as saying. “The rescuers will go inside and see, and then we will be able to tell.”
The eight persons are trapped around 14 km inside the tunnel of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project. Congress leader who won Lok Sabah seat from Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi wrote on X, “Deeply distressed to learn about the tunnel roof collapse in Telangana. My thoughts are with those trapped inside and their families at this difficult time. I have been informed that rescue operations are underway, and the state government along with disaster relief teams are doing everything possible to expeditiously bring back those in danger”.
According to officials, 51 workers were carrying out excavation work through a hill, about 120 km from Hyderabad, when a part of the tunnel’s roof caved in at around 8.30 am. Most of the workers escaped but some, including two site engineers, were trapped behind a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) close to the 14-km mark in the tunnel.
The tunnel is part of the SLBC project, which seeks to provide 30 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) of water to Nalgonda from the Srisailam reservoir.
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