SLBC tunnel collapse: Conveyor belt repair expected soon, says CM Revanth

Terming the accident as unfortunate and unexpected, CM Revanth appealed to the opposition parties not to politicise the issue and unite to work together.

Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday, March 2, expressed hope that the damaged conveyor belt of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel, which was impacted by the collapse, is expected to be repaired by Monday. Once restored, it will allow for easier removal of muck and debris from the tunnel and reach the trapped workers, he added.

The Telangana chief minister was at in Nagukurnool district inspecting the rescue operations at the SLBC tunnel roof collapse area along with state irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy. “Officials say it will take another two to three days to resolve the issue. They have not yet come to a complete assessment of where the eight trapped workers are and where the conveyor belt was damaged,” the chief minister told reporters.

Terming the accident as unfortunate and unexpected, CM Revanth appealed to the opposition parties not to politicise the issue and unite to work together. “This is a disaster. The state government is determined to solve this problem. However, be it the government or the opposition… this is the time to show empathy to the affected families and support them,” he said.

Eight persons–engineers and labourers have been trapped under the collapsed roof of the SLBC tunnel since February 22. The trapped persons have been identified as Manoj Kumar (UP), Sri Niwas (UP), Sunny Singh (J&K), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.

Previous govt neglected SLBC tunnel works: CM

Lashing out at the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, CM Revanth disclosed that no funds had been released to Jaypee Group, the company responsible for constructing the SLBC tunnel. Moreover, there were pending electricity bills that led to a power showdown and ultimately the works stopped.

“As soon as the Congress government came to power, swift action was taken to complete the project. Pending electricity bills were cleared, technical experts were consulted to resolve issues, and necessary spare parts were procured from the United States for the machinery,” he said.

The chief minister also said that during the BRS government, there was a reported accident on power generation, but the news never came out in public. “When I, as the president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee tried to visit the accident site, I was stopped,” CM Revanth claimed.

The Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel is touted to be the biggest tunnel in the world. The state Disaster Management department said 18 organisations, 54 officials and 703 peopl e are involved in the rescue operation after a portion of the roof collapsed on February 22. The bodies of four out of the eight workers have been located, the state tourism minister Jupally Krishna Rao told the media on March 1.

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SLBC tunnel roof collapse: Bodies of 4 trapped workers located

Rao also said the location of the bodies has been found using the ground-penetrating radar equipment, and the slush was being removed manually to recover the bodies.

Rao said the remaining four bodies of the workers appeared to be at the frontage of the tunnel boring machine, where slush was filled in a distance of 24 ft. He said it could take an additional day to recover those bodies.