Hopes of finding the missing workers rest in areas before the prohibited zone

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Monday said that rescue operations and the search for the seven missing workers in the collapsed SLBC tunnel in Nagarkurnool district must continue, and named IAS officer Sivasankar Lotheti as special officer to oversee the work.

The Chief Minister reviewed the rescue work and the way forward at a meeting with senior officials, and representatives of the rescue agencies that have been involved in the operations since the collapse on February 22, trapping eight workers under the debris.

Present at the meeting were ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Jupally Krishna Rao, and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, and chief secretary A. Santhi Kumari.

At the meeting held in the committee hall in the Assembly premises, special chief secretary for disaster management Arvind Kumar, and Col. Parikshit Mehra from the border roads organisation explained how the incident occurred and all the steps and rescue efforts over the past month.

While the body of one worker, Gurpreet Singh has been found and handed over to his family, there was no trace of the other missing seven till Monday. Cleaning of rocks and silt, and cutting the tunnel boring machine into smaller parts in the search for the missing workers was continuing, the Chief Minister was informed.

It is learnt that at present, the effort was to clear all the debris till the prohibited zone – a 30 metre stretch from the tunnel face where the collapse occurred – in the hope that some more of the missing workers may still be found in the section up to the section declared as a no-go zone over fears of instability and further collapses if the material piled up there is disturbed.

If none of the missing is found in the area where work is now on, then the only possibility is that they were trapped in the now prohibited zone, work on which can be taken up only after scientists from the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and NGRI, as well as those from the National Centre for Seismology conclude that this zone is safe for human activity.

While GSI and NGRI are reported to have informed that they may be able to present their reports in about six weeks, the NCS may take up to six months to submit its report as its findings will need to be based on observations over a period of time on the stability of the area at Nallamala hills under which the tunnel is being dug.

It is also learnt that the government is exploring options on extending ex gratia to the families of the missing workers, and a decision on this is likely to be taken soon. Also, with most of the hard work in removing debris and parts of the tunnel boring machine completed till the prohibited zone point, it is expected that some of the work of some of the rescue agencies will be wound down in the days to come.

The complete cleaning and the search till the prohibited zone are expected to be completed by the middle or end of the second week of April.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister stressed on the importance of doing everything possible to find the rest of the missing workers, and instructed officials to take all necessary permissions from the Centre for tackling the disaster. He said advice and guidance from an expert committee should be taken for taking the rescue operation forward, and exploring ways to complete the project.

The accident happened at almost the 14 km point inside the tunnel, which made rescue work and efforts challenging, despite 25 agencies and around 700 rescuers working tirelessly. The work on removing rocks, silt, and parts of the tunnel boring machine that is being cut and taking all of the muck out of the tunnel is continuing, the officials explained.

The meeting was attended by Major General Ajay Misra, the general officer commanding, Telangana and Andhra Sub-Area; advisor for irrigation to the state government Adityanath Das, and senior officials from the NDRF, SDRF, Singareni Collieries, fire services, HYDRAA, along with representatives from JP Associates, the contractor building the tunnel, and the other rescue agencies.

Important Points:

Tunnel collapse on February 22, 2025

Eight workers trapped, body of one found

Around 700 rescuers involved

46,236 man hours inside the tunnel

59,200 man hours outside the tunnel.

800 tonnes of metal from TBM, 1,500 tonnes of soil, rock debris removed.

How the accident happened

Feb. 22, 8.15 am: Water carrying silt entered the tunnel at 13.934 km (20 metres behind the TBM cutter head).

This was followed by huge amounts of water and debris 20 minutes later.

Soil and rocks flooded 350 metres, water extended to 2.5 km.

Water flow shot up to 10,000 litres per minute for a few hours.

Debris reached a height of eight metres at the collapse point.

Three rings of cement concrete that were lined against the tunnel wall collapsed, another four deformed.

Debris pushed out many components from top of the TBM including a large gantry 300 metres, blocking all access to tunnel at the 13.6 km point.