SLBC tunnel rescue to enter day 25 today
1,550 tonnes of debris removed
Hyderabad:Efforts to search for the still missing seven workers in the disaster hit SLBC tunnel in Nagarkurnool district entered the 24th day on Monday.
The removal of silt, slush and stones, coupled with destroyed and broken parts of the tunnel boring machine that had to be cut to smaller sizes that has been going on for the past fortnight also continued on Monday.
Since the rescue operations began soon after the February 22 accident in the Srisailam Left Bank Tunnel in Nagarkurnool district, a whopping 900 tonnes of metal – mostly parts of the tunnel boring machine that had to be cut – and 650 tonnes of slush of silt, water, and rocks, have been removed till Monday. The multi-agency rescue operations involve around 650 rescuers from various state and national agencies including the NDRF, SDRF, Border Roads Organization, Singareni Collieries, HYDRAA, and rat miners working round the clock in three shifts.
So far, the body of one of the eight workers who went missing after a section of the tunnel roof collapsed has been found and handed over to his family in Punjab. Officials said though they hope that they can make a breakthrough each day in their search for the other seven missing workers, the tough conditions in the tunnel, including the need not to disturb anything in the last 50 metres of the collapsed and debris-filled section, are proving to be a challenge.
With a large excavator now in place for the past two days, silt removal has been speeded up between D2 and D1 points, but in the process, we are encountering large sections of broken machine which need to be cut and carried outside on the locomotive, an official involved with the rescue operations said.
On Monday, heavy electric transformers that were part of the tunnel boring machine were removed with the help of the excavator, and cutting the upper compartment of the machine’s platform has been completed up to the D1 point, the official said.
While the D2 point marks the 50 metre spot from the tunnel end towards the rescue zone, the D1 point marks the zone from where digging is going on until the D1 point in the search for the missing workers.
