KTR reiterates demand for judicial probe in SLBC tunnel accident

He was responding to a news report in an English daily that disclosed findings from a report titled "Tunnel Seismic Prediction - 303 Plus." Commissioned by Jaiprakash Associates Limited, the company awarded the SLBC tunnel contract in 2005, the report had warned of a potential "fault zone" in the tunnel, indicating a high risk of collapse. It also identified a decline in rock strength in this section and emphasized that the stretch was a water-bearing zone.

Hyderabad: Charging the Congress government with gross negligence, BRS working president KT Rama Rao demanded Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to come out clean on the collapse of Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel. He reiterated that only an investigation with a High Court sitting judge can be relied upon, to unearth the facts.

He was reacting to a news report in an English newspaper revealing that a report titled “Tunnel Seismic Prediction – 303 Plus” commissioned by Jaiprakash Associates Limited, the company which was awarded the SLBC tunnel contract in 2005, had warned about a possible “fault zone” in the tunnel, where the possibility of collapse is high. The report also found a decrease in rock strength in this stretch and highlighted that the stretch was a water-bearing zone.

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The news report also cited another research paper by former Director General of Geological Survey of India Mandapalli Raju and Jaiprakash Associate’s geologist Rituraj Deshmukh, which stated that the tunnelling started with poor subsurface exploration.

Apparently, the then BRS government had stopped the tunnelling indefinitely, soon after seepage was discovered in the walls of the SLBC tunnel. But the current Congress government resumed the works reportedly without conducting any prior study on the structural strength.

Citing the news report, Rama Rao expressed his shock over the utter disregard of the Congress government, for the safety of the workers and public money in the SLBC project. “Not one but two reports highlighted the safety issue and even earmarked the exact same place of accident as the ‘Red Zone’. One of the reports stated the same just days before the accident and still the government decided to go ahead with the tunnelling work?” he said.

The BRS working president pointed out that eight families are broken and in shambles, while thousands of crores public money wasted. Yet, he suspected the tunnelling was allowed for the Congress party’s commissions. “We demand the truth, from you and your entire cabinet, on behalf of those eight families and others who are seeking answers and justice,” he asked the Chief Minister.