Telangana
A success has been achieved during a week’s rescue operation after a tunnel collapsed in Telangana. Out of a total of 7 people trapped in the tunnel, the ‘location’ of four has been detected. This information was given by State Excise Minister Jupalli Krishna Rao on Saturday. However, he said that people trapped in the tunnel are expected to escape.
Krishna Rao attended the meeting with the officials involved in the rescue operation along with Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy. He said that there has been a lot of progress in the last few days. He told reporters, “I think the location of four people has been detected through radar.” He hoped that people would be taken out by Sunday evening.
When asked about the situation of the four people who have come to know about the situation, the minister said that he had said on the very first day that the possibility of the trapped people survive. Krishna Rao said that where the place of having four people has been identified, the work of extracting silt is being done by hand, which is expected to be completed by Sunday evening.
Scientists at the National Institute of Geophysical Research (NGRI) used the ‘Ground Penetrating Radar’ (GPR) and during this time they found important clues. The minister said that it seems that the remaining four people are trapped under the tunnel boring machine (TBM), which may take some time to find out.
He said that 450 feet tall TBM is being cut and about 11 agencies are involved in this campaign. Referring to the criticism of the opposition parties for the delay in the campaign, Krishna Rao said that the people involved in the effort are experts, but the rescue operations are complicated in view of other situations including mud inside the tunnel.
Krishna Rao said that the campaign is going on, so the families of people trapped in the tunnel also have expectations. Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) has trapped eight people (engineers and workers) under the roof of the tunnel collapsing and the rescue operations to evacuate them safely.