The body of another worker trapped in the collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project tunnel in Telangana was recovered on Tuesday, over a month after the tragic incident. Officials confirmed that this brings the total number of bodies retrieved to two, with six more individuals still unaccounted for.
Nagarkurnool District Collector Badavath Santhosh informed the media that the body was discovered on Tuesday morning and has been “tentatively” identified as Manoj Kumar, a project engineer from Uttar Pradesh. The remains were shifted to a government hospital for post-mortem and other formalities. Officials assured that Kumar’s family would be informed, and his mortal remains would be sent to his native place as per norms.
As per Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s directive, the deceased’s family will receive an ex-gratia of ₹25 lakh. The Chief Minister also instructed that the search and rescue operation should continue until all trapped individuals are located.
Search Operations Intensify
Rescue officials revealed that Kumar’s body was extricated after personnel detected a foul smell in the early hours of Tuesday. Interestingly, the recovery location was different from the spots previously identified by sniffer dogs deployed in the search operation.
The SLBC tunnel collapse, which occurred on February 22, trapped eight workers, including engineers and laborers. The victims have been identified as Manoj Kumar, Sri Niwas, Sunny Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu, and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.
The first victim, Gurpreet Singh, a tunnel boring machine operator, was recovered on March 9 and his remains were handed over to his family in Punjab.
To expedite the operation, four excavators have been deployed inside the tunnel, and 700 personnel from 25 state, central, and private agencies are engaged in the rescue efforts. However, officials acknowledged that the operation is becoming increasingly complex due to the challenging location—14 km deep inside the tunnel, where ventilation and lighting conditions are extremely poor.
Additionally, authorities have identified a 30-meter section of the tunnel as particularly dangerous, adding to the challenges faced by the rescuers.
Despite these difficulties, officials remain committed to retrieving the remaining trapped individuals, ensuring closure for their families.
Sources By Agencies
