Bhubaneswar: The situation inside the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district, where eight men have been trapped since Saturday morning, has drastically changed overnight with heavy seepage of water and mud, rescuers have told the press.
NDRF’s 10th Battalion Commandant Prasanna Kumar on Monday said that after a lengthy meeting with the Navy, Army and other organisations to take stock of the situation, none of the experts present at the site could suggest how to navigate through the thick wall of slush to reach the trapped persons.
“The Navy commandos tried but were not equipped for this kind of wall of mud, which has increased in height to about 11 feet. It is like a big quicksand pit. The visibility has gone to zero. We have deployed probe scopes and sonars which revealed the presence of dangerous debris like twisted metal, concrete chucks and other material. Anyone who ventures into it will be seriously injured. A rat hole worker has arrived, but he cannot help either because he can work only in dry conditions. Here we are dealing with a thick wall of mud-water mix. Right now we do not have any technology to help us make our way through this wall of slush to reach the victims. We have not been able to establish contact with the trapped persons so far,” Kumar said.
According to officials, natural rock formations in the tunnel became loose, causing sudden water and mud inflow that filled about 12-13 feet of the tunnel. “This is a highly challenging situation, and technical experts are working round the clock to resolve the crisis,” Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy said. Reddy said that the terrain is making it difficult to bring in any heavy machinery or equipment that may help remove the slush faster.
Officials said that removing the slush and dangerous debris of tangled metal pieces from the tunnel boring machine may take days.
Concerns about the well-being of the eight persons have escalated as nearly 60 hours have passed since a portion of the ceiling collapsed on Saturday morning, 13.5 kilometres inside the tunnel.
Trapped inside are Sunny Singh from Gurha Manhasan, J&K, and Gurpreet Singh from Taran Taran, Punjab – two engineers of the American tunnelling firm The Robbins Company; Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from UP, both engineers with Jaiprakash Associates; and construction workers Sandeep Sahu, Jagta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu from Jharkhand.