Hyderabad, Mar 3: The rescue operation in the partially collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district entered its 10th day on Monday, with the authorities exploring the possibility of using robots to trace the eight trapped men.

Multiple rescue teams of various agencies of the Centre and state continued desilting and machine-cutting at the locations identified by the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) after scanning the accident site through Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).

The rescue teams of the Army, Navy, NDRF, SDRF, Singareni Mines Rescue, Fire Services, HYDRAA, South Central Railway plasma cutters, and Rat Miners continued to face impediments like water seepage.

The rescue workers are unable to remove silt, water and debris from the tunnel due to lack of a functional conveyor belt. Technical teams were busy repairing the belt, and it is expected to become functional by Monday evening, and this is expected to help in speeding up the rescue operation.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday suggested the use of robots in the tunnel in which eight persons have remained trapped since February 22.

The Chief Minister, who visited the tunnel and held a review meeting with agencies involved in the rescue operation, asked officials to examine the possibility of using robots to prevent any further loss of life.

“Eight missing persons have not yet been traced. Experts have not concluded whether they are alive or dead,” he said.

The Chief Minister said it may take another 2-3 days for the rescue workers to come to a conclusion.

Chief Minister Reddy said the agencies involved in the rescue have not been able to come to a conclusion about the location of the machines and human beings, though they have tentatively identified the areas.

He assured that the state government would extend all help to the families of eight persons who had come from other states to work as engineers, machine operators or labourers. Stating that helping them is the responsibility of the government, he stressed the need for all to come together to console the families affected by the accident.

Two workers were injured, and eight others were trapped when a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed on February 22 at the 14th km point.

The trapped persons have been identified as Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh (J&K), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahau, all from Jharkhand.

Of the eight, two are engineers, two are operators, and the remaining four are labourers. They were employed by Jaiprakash Associates, the contracting firm for the tunnel project

--IANS

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