By Anushka Rajvedi
Around eight workers were trapped inside a tunnel, when the roof of the tunnel, which was under construction collapsed at Srisailam Left Bank Canal in Telangana on Saturday.
PTI reported that, on Saturday, six to eight workers were trapped inside a tunnel, when the roof which was under construction suddenly collapsed. N Uttam Kumar Reddy, the irrigation minister of Telangana stated that, ‘the incident took place at the Srisailam Left Bank Canal stretch, which is located in Nagarkurnool district of Telangana.’
Reddy revealed that ‘out of the eight workers trapped inside the tunnel, there are four workers, two engineers and two machine operators.’ he further stated that, ‘the state has formed an emergency task force with the help of experts who managed to rescue the workers from a similar incident that occurred in Uttarakhand last year.’
While the NDRF and the Indian army are working along with the state government to rescue the workers, J. Krishna Rao, the Minister of Telangana, however stated that ‘the situation is not good and that the chances of survival of the eight workers are bleak.’ he further added that, “the agencies, the army and NDRF, along with the government are trying to save the workers, however, due to the collapse, it has become difficult for them to even pass by the rubbles. Rubber tubes and wooden planks are being used by the authorities to reach the workers. However, the chances of survival of the workers is very low.’
Sanjay Sah, one of the 50 workers who was on site to work told that, ‘the workers who were on night shift informed them about the water leakage in the tunnel. However, such a situation occurred before, hence, the workers cautiously entered the tunnel at 7:00 am and walked 13 kilometers deep inside the tunnel, which took them about an hour. However, after a period of time, the roof of the tunnel suddenly collapsed nearly 13.5 km inside the tunnel. Sah, along with 41 others ran to rescue, but the eight workers were trapped inside.’
The state government released videos to show the situation on-site.