The tunnel is being dug from two sides, the outlet end in Nalgonda district, and the inlet side in Nagarkurnool district, not very far from the Srisailam dam.
Hyderabad: The accident at the Srisailam left bank canal (SLBC) tunnel comes as a major setback for the Congress government which was hoping that the remaining portion of the work on the project, along with around 10 km of tunnelling, could be completed and the project made ready by December 2026 for operations.
The tunnel is being dug from two sides, the outlet end in Nalgonda district, and the inlet side in Nagarkurnool district, not very far from the Srisailam dam. The accident happened at the 14 km point in the tunnel, which begins its nearly 44 km journey from close to the dam in Domalpenta on the Srisailam highway on the Telangana side of River Krishna.
Just how Saturday’s accident will play out and impact the completion of the project will be known only once the rescue teams complete their mission of getting the eight trapped workers safely from the tunnel face where they are stuck after Saturday’s collapse.
Cleaning the tunnel boring machine (TBM) can take a few months, as had happened before the tunnelling began in 2009 when sudden floods in Krishna submerged the work site and Robbins, the company that is doing the tunnelling, taking 14 days to clean up the machine. At that time, the TBM was still outside making this clean up and repairs and replacement of parts possible in a more easy manner.
Saturday’s disaster could mean a setback of at least a year or two, if not more depending on the amount of work required, first to repair and restore the TBM after the completion of the rescue mission, and then fresh geological studies to establish the stability of the rock through which the tunnel is being dug, and then strengthening of the area before any further work can be taken up.
The project that was launched in 2005, had seen inordinate delays with allegations that the then BRS government was not keen on going ahead with it, holding back on release of funds for urgent repairs to the TBM working from the Nalgonda end, as well as for repairs of the second TBM working from the Domalapenta inlet side.
