The South Central Railway deployed two expert teams to cut heavy metals and establish contact with the eight trapped workers.
The rescue operation to trace the missing eight workers inside the collapsed SLBC tunnel in Telangana's Nagarkurnool gained momentum, with the state government now seeking assistance from railways to remove debris. The South Central Railway (SCR) team has deployed two expert teams with advanced machinery to clear the debris.
"District Collector, Nagarkurnool sought the help of South Central Railway in rescue operation by clearing iron and steel debris that have been hindering the rescue works at the site. SCR quickly responded to the call and deployed two teams of metal-cutting experts in the rescue mission,” the South Central Railway Chief Public Relations officer A Sridhar told PTI . The officer said railway has an expertise in cutting heavy metals using equipment such as `plasma cutter and Broncho cutting machine''.
The railway team is led by S Murali, Divisional Mechanical Engineer, consisting a senior Section Engineer, 13 Welders and two technicians from Secunderabad,
Eight persons got trapped inside the tunnel on February 22 after the roof of the under-construction tunnel partially collapsed.
The trapped personnel have been identified as Manoj Kumar (UP), Sri Niwas (UP), Sunny Singh (J&K), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahau, all from Jharkhand.
The workers remain trapped inside the tunnel without food and water as no contact has been established with the persons trapped yet.
Meanwhile, Nagarkurnool Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Gaikwad told PTI that the metal-cutting and debris-clearing process is continuously ongoing.
"One team went into the tunnel at 7 AM. The clearing of debris has been going on since yesterday morning. Dewatering is also going on," he said.
According to the Hindu, the rescue teams have succeeded in reaching the last 50 meters from the spot of collapse. The eight people trapped includes two engineers, two technical staff and four workers
Telangana irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy on Thursday said the rescue and relief operations are in full swing, and that the operation would be completed in two days.
The Minister on Wednesday said the TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) that is struck inside will be cut into pieces by using gas cutters and removed. After this, the Army, Navy, Rat Miners and NDRF teams will make another serious effort to rescue the eight persons who are missing, without compromising their own safety.
The National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) unit has also stepped into the rescue operation , the debris was not easy to get removed because of the steel and iron, soil small boulders and broken parts of the supporting system of the tunnel boring machine TBM, it somehow stopped the rescue work in the past few days as there was no gap left between the debris and the tunnel roof
However, a delegation of the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) visited the SLBC tunnel and assumed that the Congress government is blaming the previous BRS rule for the present incident.
Run by former minister for Irrigation T. Harish Rao, the delegation was not allowed by the police initially but after an objection, only 10 members were allowed go inside the tunnel.
On Wednesday, Telangana Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy had said the TBM that is stuck inside will be cut into pieces using gas cutters and removed, and the rescue operation would be completed in two or three days and tunnel work would be resumed in two or three months and the Army, Navy, Rat Miners and NDRF teams will make another serious effort to rescue the eight persons who are missing, without compromising their own safety.
(With PTI inputs)