SLBC tunnel mishap: Workers might have met a watery grave, says Uttam Kumar Reddy

Ground studies conducted using GPR failed to provide effective information about location of missing workers

Hyderabad: Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, during an appraisal of rescue operations made in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at the SLBC tunnel, acknowledged the grim possibility that the missing workers might have met a watery grave.

He expressed gratitude to the agencies that have been striving for nine days to rescue the eight missing workers and engineers, stating, “We understand that there would be no survivors.”

---

Ground studies conducted using a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) by the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) failed to provide effective information about the location of the missing workers. The identified locations through radar scanning led only to the discovery of metal pieces, he said.

Despite the dire situation, the Minister insisted that the operation should continue to retrieve the bodies. He emphasized the urgency of locating and recovering the bodies and directed Special Chief Secretary (Disaster Management) Arvind Kumar to remain on-site and monitor the ongoing rescue operations.

The Minister also called for another round of discussions in Hyderabad with the heads of all national and state agencies involved in the rescue efforts to work out an action plan to make the mission successful.

Officials informed the Minister that a four-member team from the National Centre for Seismology would visit the tunnel on March 4 to conduct ground studies deploying equipment capable of scanning the surface up to a depth of 500 metres.