Eight persons
were trapped when a portion of the tunnel being dug as part of Srisailam Left Bank Canal collapsed on Feb 22
Four teams of
NDRF, Indian Army, SDRF, SCCL
are participating in rescue operations. Water and mud hampering rescue efforts
The NDRF team, which reached up to 11th km in a loco train,
found water and mud
beyond this point
About
three feet of water
was accumulated in the tunnel
Fifty persons
were working on the left-side tunnel when the roof collapsed for three meters
While
42 workers came out of the tunnel
, the remaining eight were trapped
Those trapped include
two engineers
and
two machine operators
Of the eight, six belong to
Jaiprakash Associates
and two are employees of a
US company
Those trapped men are from
Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab
and
Jammu & Kashmir
The
Tunnel Boring Machine was badly damaged
. The water and the soil from the tunnel roof pushed back the machine up to 80 meters
Workers who rushed out said they heard an explosion, which could be a
geological disturbance