Nagarkurnool (Telangana), Mar 8: Telangana Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday directed officials to take immediate steps to deploy robots for rescue work inside the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel as fragments of the damaged Tunnel Boring Machine posed a danger to the rescue personnel.
Eight persons remained trapped inside the tunnel since February 22, after a part of it collapsed.
Reddy, who visited the tunnel site and reviewed the ongoing rescue operation with officials of different organisations, said the government would spend Rs four crores to undertake the rescue work by utilizing the services of robot experts (of a Hyderabad-based private company).
As the fragments of the huge TBM got submerged under water, soil and stones inside the tunnel, they caused a hazard to the rescue team, an official release quoted him as saying.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who visited the tunnel on March 2, suggested to the officials leading the rescue operation to use robots inside the tunnel if necessary, to avoid any danger to the rescue personnel.
The irrigation minister, who described the tunnel collapse as a national disaster, said the government is determined to continue the rescue operation though the conditions inside the tunnel, including low levels of oxygen, high seepage of water and the sturdy parts of TBM that got drowned in water and soil, posed challenges to the operation.
The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) had got damaged inside the tunnel and rescue teams have been cutting its parts to reach the stranded persons. The government would fully stand by the workers and officials involved in the rescue work, the minister said. He instructed the officials to use the best technology in the world to locate the trapped persons.
Special Chief Secretary (Disaster Management) Arvind Kumar, who is supervising the rescue operation, and other officials informed the minister about its progress.
The minister discussed the hurdles faced by the operation, the reasons for lack of desired speed and the steps to be taken to overcome the challenges with officials of National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), rat miners, robotic experts and others, the release said.
The minister thanked the officials, experts and personnel who are working hard.
He said he would again visit the tunnel site on March 11. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy would either visit the site or review the rescue operation in Hyderabad, he said.
The rescue operation has been going on amid challenging conditions, including slush and seepage of water.
The cadaver dogs deployed to locate human presence on Friday identified two possible spots for human presence and the rescue personnel have been removing the silt at those locations.
The cadaver dogs of the Kerala police joined the operation on Friday morning with rescue teams taking the canines inside the tunnel. The dogs are trained to locate missing humans and human bodies.
The cadaver dogs of Kerala police (of the Belgian Malinois breed) can detect smell even from a depth of 15 feet, officials said.
Eight persons — engineers and labourers — have been trapped in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project tunnel since February 22 and experts from the NDRF, Indian Army, Navy and other agencies are making relentless efforts to pull them out to safety. PTI
