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Rescuers inch closer to trapped workers
The miners suspect the workers are buried within approximately 12 feet of slush and debris, complicating an already challenging rescue operation that has entered its fourth day.
Specialised trench hole miners who helped rescue 41 workers in the 2023 Silkyara tunnel collapse reached the suspected location of eight workers trapped inside the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Telangana on Tuesday evening, but found no visible signs of the men on the surface.
The miners suspect the workers are buried within approximately 12 feet of slush and debris, complicating an already challenging rescue operation that has entered its fourth day.
“We were assisted by NDRF personnel and other agencies to enter the tunnel. There is a space of 1m to 4m till the first 14km mark of the tunnel where the machines have been placed,” said Delhi resident Munna Qureshi, who led the trench hole miners and was part of the successful 2023 Silkyara tunnel rescue operation.
“Climbing on top of the machines, today we managed to use rat-hole mining method to dig further and enter some 300m inside, which is the spot where the workers are believed to be trapped. We have taken photographs of that spot from the top,” Qureshi added.
The 12-member team of specialised miners was forced to exit quickly after reaching the site due to hazardous conditions. “There is heavy slush and water dripping at the spot. Had the top of the rubble collapsed, we too could have been trapped so we came out immediately,” Qureshi explained.
Qureshi highlighted that this operation presents different challenges compared to the Silkyara tunnel rescue in Uttarakhand last year.
“This is different from Silkyara because in Silkyara though we had used rat hole mining method to horizontally dig some 14 metres, we knew where the workers were trapped. Here the workers are most probably trapped in debris. To reach out to them, rescuers will now have to go for a vertical dive in the debris inside,” he said.
A senior NDRF officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the next phase of the rescue will require digging vertically through the debris.
“The slush measures around 12 feet inside the tunnel. Diving inside 12 feet of debris outside is easy but in this case the debris is inside the tunnel and on top of that water is constantly dripping adding to the slush. First, we will have to find out signs of life and then figure out ways to reach out to the people trapped in the debris,” the officer said.
Rescue teams have been battling against rising water levels and deep slush since Saturday morning, when a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed, trapping eight people, including two engineers.
The continuous water ingress at the site has hampered rescue operations, despite round-the-clock dewatering efforts. Teams managed to reach the rear of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) at the 14th kilometre of the 43.93-kilometre tunnel but had been unable to progress further until the trench hole miners’ breakthrough today.
