SLBC tunnel: Ops turn from rescue to recovery

Minister Jupally Krishna Rao, who visited the tunnel inlet site on Saturday, said the chances of finding survivors were next to nil. “Ninetynine per cent chances are that they are no longer alive,” he said.

According to officials supervising the efforts inside the tunnel, which have now turned into a recovery operation, the continuous seepage of water was making it very hard to dig in the spots where the missing persons were believed to be located. While four were in an area that is accessible between the broken tail portion and the rest of the tunnel boring machine (TBM), the other four were reported to be between the collapsed section and the front portion of the TBM.

It may be recalled that a team of scientists from the National Geophysical Research of India had provided locations of what is strongly believed to be the missing persons. It is quite easy to spot soft materials in the ground penetrating radar report, and the material properties indicate that the ‘anomalies’ found on Friday were the missing workers, a rescue official said.

Unless the exposed portion of the TBM is cut and removed, it will be a challenging task to dig through the silt, an official supervising the efforts told Deccan Chronicle. An 8 am Sunday deadline has been set to complete removal of this hurdle.

Even as work was on to resolve this problems, teams of mine rescue specialists from Singareni Collieries who have been digging through the silt to reach the first four workers, reported continuous filling up of water in the holes which was setting them back continuously. An addition lightweight pump was to be installed later in the night to evacuate the constantly oozing water.

“There is foul smell coming from the water,” one of the workers who returned from a shift inside the tunnel said.

“It is now a recovery effort and it is vital that we do this. It is a terrible tragedy. The families of the missing workers need closure and we must do everything we can on this front,” an official said.

Meanwhile, another Singareni Collieries team has stepped in to repair the broken conveyor belt system. A SCCL official said that a team, with equipment and materials to join the broken conveyor belts, and do the necessary repairs will arrive on Sunday. This task is expected to be completed on Monday.

Earlier in the day, a top-level team led by ministers N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Jupally Krishna Rao, Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari, special chief secretary, disaster relief, Arvind Kumar and senior officials who reviewed the efforts that were speeded up after a team from NGRI pinpointed likely spots in the silt and debris where the missing workers are believed to be buried.