TBM nearly buried, SLBC completion nowhere in sight now
Saturday’s disaster is really going to set us back, a top government official, involved in the rescue operations to try and save eight men trapped inside the tunnel, said on Sunday.
Domalapenta: Engineers from Jaiprakash Associates, and Robbins from USA, who are operating the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) as well as from the irrigation department, are looking at a really long haul before they can make progress in completing work on the Srisailam left bank canal tunnel.
Saturday’s disaster is really going to set us back, a top government official, involved in the rescue operations to try and save eight men trapped inside the tunnel, said on Sunday.
According to a representative from Jaiprakash Associates, as of now, even hazarding a guess when the TBM can be properly assessed was difficult. This might take one month or three months in all, then every part of the machine needs to be inspected, and we expect that several small and big repairs would be needed. This could take many months, he said.
This is a disaster that was completely out of control of anyone, irrigation minister Uttam Kumar Reddy who was back at the SLBC tunnel site to coordinate and oversee rescue efforts, said. He made it clear that SLBC was a prestigious project and the government was committed to completing it.