Hyderabad

Teams engaged in the operation to rescue eight workers trapped in an under-construction tunnel that collapsed on Saturday in Telangana's Nagarkurnool district received no response when they called out the names of the trapped men, state Minister Jupally Krishna Rao admitted.

The Excise and Tourism Minister, who went into the tunnel to observe the rescue operation, told media that the rescue teams had called out the names of the trapped workers, but unfortunately, there was no response. "Sadly, there was no response to these calls," he said.

Krishna Rao, along with Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, is supervising the operation. He stated that the rescue teams were very close to the site of the accident but added that the situation inside the tunnel was horrifying, and the chances of survival were slim. “Things do not look hopeful,” he said, noting that the end of the tunnel was visible, which further reduced the chances of finding the workers alive.

The minister also mentioned that the rescue teams were hampered by muck and debris that obstructed their progress.

Meanwhile, Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and former minister K. Jana Reddy reviewed the situation at the tunnel on Monday. Venkat Reddy expressed hope that the trapped men would be rescued, drawing on the example of a similar operation in Uttarakhand, where 41 workers were rescued from a collapsed tunnel after 17 days. "We have hopes. In Uttarakhand, 41 workers were rescued after 17 days," he said.

The government has enlisted help from experts from various agencies, both in India and abroad, for the rescue operation. Multiple teams, including the Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), and the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), are part of the operation.

Two teams from construction giant Larsen & Toubro, equipped with advanced tools, joined the rescue efforts on Monday. These teams, who previously worked on a similar rescue in Uttarakhand, have brought in endoscopic and robotic cameras.

Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santosh said that the rescue teams need to cover an additional 40 metres to reach the collapsed area, but this part of the tunnel is filled with muck, which is hindering progress.

The L&T teams will use endoscopic and robotic cameras to sift through the debris and try to communicate with any survivors at the far end of the tunnel. These same tools were used during the Uttarakhand rescue operation, where 41 workers were saved after 17 days.

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More than 48 hours after the collapse of a portion of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel, the fate of the eight trapped workers, including two engineers and two machine operators, remains uncertain.

The trapped workers are from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Jammu & Kashmir. Among them are Project Manager Manoj Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Machine Engineer Srinivas (Uttar Pradesh), Machine Operators Sunny Singh (J&K) and Gurpreet Singh (Punjab), as well as four workers from Jharkhand: Sandeep Sahu, Santosh Sahu, Anju Sahu and Jagta Khes.