Telangana tunnel collapse: One more body recovered
Another body of a worker was found by the rescue team in the early hours of Tuesday from the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Nagarkurnool. The tunnel collapsed on February 22nd entrapping eight workers. The body of the worker is stuck in a difficult position, and currently the teams are are doing their best to retrieve it.
The rescue teams said, "Today, in the early morning hours, we found another dead body stuck in a position, and we are currently working to retrieve it."
The tragic incident occurred on February 22. Eight workers were trapped in the accident. One of the bodies of trapped workers - Gurpreet Singh was recovered on March 9. Revanth Reddy, CM of Telangana announced an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakhs for the kins of the deceased.
Earlier, the Telangana Chief Minister directed officials to expedite rescue operations to locate and bring out the workers trapped inside the SLBC tunnel. The Chief Minister instructed Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari to appoint senior IAS officer Shiva Shankar Loteti as a Special Officer to "continuously monitor the rescue operations."
On Monday, CM Reddy monitored the progress of the rescue operations that is going on in the SLBC tunnel.
Other top officials like Ministers N Uttam N Kumar Reddy, Jupally Krishna Rao, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari participated in the meeting.
A briefing to the CM about the progress in the ongoing rescue operations was done by State Special Chief Secretary to Disaster Management Arvind Kumar and Colonel Parikshit Mehra
The officials informed the Chief Minister that 25 agencies including various wings of the Central and State governments as well as private organizations are engaged in the rescue operations."A total of 700 personnel have been involved in the rescue operations."
The official said the rescue teams are "removing" the debris of collapsed rocks, dismantling the TBM ( Tunnel Boring Machine) parts and "clearing" soil mounds, silt and seepage water from inside the tunnel. The heads of the rescue teams also made a PowerPoint presentation and explained the present situation and rescue operations in the tunnel.
In the meeting, the top authorities said that rescue operations were "delayed due to poor air and light conditions" as the accident occurred 14 kilometres from the inlet in the tunnel. "30 meters of the accident area has been identified as the most dangerous zone". (ANI)
