Telangana: 8 trapped as under-construction tunnel’s roof collapses; rescue op on

Eight workers, including two site engineers, were trapped inside an under-construction tunnel of Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) when a portion of its roof collapsed near Domalapenta village in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district, about 120 km from Hyderabad, on Saturday morning, officials said.

The collapse occurred about 14 km inside the tunnel, the total length of which is 44 km. The tunnel roof caved in to the extent of three metres. There were around 51 workers at the site during the incident but around 43 have come out safely. Three of them sustained injuries and they were shifted to the local hospital run by the Telangana power generation corporation.

Nagarkurnool superintendent of police (SP) Vaibhav Gaikwad, who rushed to the spot, told reporters that the incident happened at around 8.30 am when the workers were operating the boring machine that was drilling through the hill.

The tunnel work started only four days ago, after a gap of nearly eight years and only 9.5 km of tunnel work is pending.

State minister for irrigation N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who air-dashed to the spot along with his Cabinet colleague Jupally Krishna Rao, told reporters that eight workers, including two site engineers were still trapped inside the tunnel. They have been identified as Manoj Kumar (50), Sri Niwas (49), Sandeep Sahu (27), Jagta Xess (37), Santosh Sahu (37) and Anuj Sahu (25) (all from Jaiprakash Associates Ltd), Sunny Singh (34) and Gurupreet Singh (40) (both from Robbins India Ltd).

The minister said mud and water entered into the tunnel due to the collapse of the roof, even as rescue operations were going on. “Soon after the roof collapsed, the electric wires snapped, plunging the tunnel into darkness. Searching for those trapped has become difficult due to darkness. It seems water filled the tunnel and formed slush,” he said.

He said rescue teams from the Singareni Collieries Company were pressed into service to provide oxygen supplies. “While the teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have also joined the rescue operations, we have also called for the army to help rescue the trapped workers,” Reddy said.

An official statement from the chief minister’s office (CMO) said chief minister A Revanth Reddy has been constantly reviewing the situation. He instructed the officials to expedite the rescue operations and save the trapped workers.

“Revanth Reddy ordered better medical treatment to the injured in the incident and assured the affected families that the government will extend all kinds of support,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the Telangana chief minister and discussed the rescue of personnel at the SLBC tunnel. Modi has assured all help and assistance in the rescue efforts, people familiar with the matter said.

The SLBC project was started in 2005 during the tenure of YS Rajasekhara Reddy in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. It came to a halt in 2017 during the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) rule but was resumed after Congress came to power in 2023.

According to the irrigation department records, the project, with an original estimate of ₹2,200 crore, has been envisaged to provide 30 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) of water to Nalgonda from the Srisailam reservoir. The estimate was later revised to ₹4,637 crore, and so far, ₹2,646 crore has been spent.

BRS working president K T Rama Rao blamed it on the inefficiency of the Congress government for the SLBC tunnel collapse and said the government should take responsibility for the collapse.

In a statement, KTR alleged that the incident occurred as the government compromised with the quality standards and there was a lack of proper supervision. “We demand a comprehensive inquiry into the incident,” he said.

(With inputs from HT Correspondent in Delhi)