Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Telangana minister Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday said it has been decided that the rescuers will go into the silt in the tunnel in search of the trapped men. He also acknowledged that the rescue operation slowed down on Tuesday keeping in view the safety of the lives of the rescuers.

Reddy also said that alternate access routes to reach the tunnel boring machine (TBM), which was stuck in the muck are also being explored to mitigate risk and improve the speed of the rescue mission. (PTI)

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Telangana Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy said that officials had come up with a full proof plan to minimise the risk for the rescuers involved in the rescue operation and it will also accelerate the speed.

“Yesterday and today till now we have assessed the situation and now we are telling you clearly how to minimise the risk for rescuers and how to go forward – we have made a concrete plan of action now. We will be going with greater speed for saving the survivors and for all rescue and relief operations,” he said.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao said, “Why is the Opposition making such statements? Save people first, only then have an inquiry. You too were a minister, but you don’t care about the lives of people. Such statements demoralise people.”

BRS Working President K T Rama Rao had sought a judicial probe into the incident, while Congress Lok Sabha member Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy had dismissed the demand, stating that this is not the time for politics.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Congress MP from Nagarkurnool, Dr. Mallu Ravi said the state government is assisting officials involved in the rescue operations without interfering with technical details of the mission.

“That is a very unfortunate accident. As Ministers Uttam Kumar Reddy and (Komatireddy) Venkat Reddy said, whatever is required from the Government’s side, we are ready to provide. Collector, SP and two State Officers have been deputed here. They are all monitoring and coordinating. So, we do not want to interfere with the technical work of the officials. We are only trying to provide whatever help is required. I hope that the 8 people will be alive,” said the MP.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Telangana Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy promised to finish the rescue operations in two days with greater speed.

“We will be going with greater speed to save the survivors and for all rescue and relief operations. We will finish everything in two days. Based on field inspection yesterday and today, we have taken a decision. We are going ahead with it now. To mitigate the risk, we are taking some other precautions and going forward. We are also exploring access from the side. We are also going to the main exit. Now, we have finalised a plan of action on how to mitigate the risk for rescuers and go in and save the survivors,” said the minister.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Munna Qureshi, a rat miner involved in rescue operations, said, “We are a total of 12 rat miners here. Our team rescued 41 workers in Uttarkashi…We also have to conduct a rescue operation here. There is some difficulty, but we will solve the problem and give you results. The situation is serious here. It is a big mission…The Collector wants to rescue all the workers.”

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: For over five hours, there has been no official update on the status of the rescue operation.

Earlier in the day, a team of experts engaged in rescuing the eight persons managed to reach the end of the tunnel and return. The teams have reached up to 50 meters before the end of the tunnel only due to muck and debris.

“A 20-member team comprising NDRF, SDRF and Rat Miners were able to reach the last points of the (tunnel). But there was a lot of debris. They are working out how to go about,” Nagarkurnool Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Gaikwad told PTI.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Those trapped incident the tunnel have been identified as Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh (J&K), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand. Of the eight, two are engineers, two operators and four labourers.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: The in-charge of the shift observed sound and intuitively ordered evacuation and ran for safety as huge amounts of water, stones, sludge and mud came down from the roof and filled the entire area in length of about 300 meters.

Unfortunately, when the headcount was taken, it came to be known that eight workers which included two officers got trapped in the debris. (PTI)

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Rescue operation is underway to pull out the eight trapped men, with the agencies, however, being nowhere close to a breakthrough.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: “First, we want to say that the 44-km SLBC tunnel will be a boon to the people and farmers of Telangana. Do they (opposition) want everything to be politics? It is shameful,” says minister Uttam Kumar Reddy.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Jaiprakash Gaur, founder-chairman of Jaypee Group, the contracting firm of Srisailam Left Bank Canal project that suffered partial collapse trapping eight persons, on Wednesday said “accidents may happen during difficult works.”

Jaiprakash Associates Limited, the flagship company of Jaypee Group, was awarded the contract of tunnel boring of SLBC.

Speaking to reporters at the accident site after meeting minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Gaur said he had seen “six to seven accidents” during his professional career.

“In these difficult works, such things happen. In my life, I think there might be six or seven accidents, the Tehri (project), in Bhutan, in J&K, everywhere. You have to encounter all this,” he said.

Gaur further said the teams are doing their best to see that those trapped individuals come out.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy inspects the rescue operation underway to pull out the workers trapped inside the SLBC tunnel.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: In a significant development, a team of experts engaged in rescuing the eight persons who have remained trapped for the past five days in the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel were able to reach the end of the tunnel and return, a senior police official said on Wednesday.

The teams so far were able to reach up to 50 meters before the end of the tunnel only due to muck and debris.

“A 20-member team comprising NDRF, SDRF and Rat Miners were able to reach the last points of the (tunnel). But there was a lot of debris. They are working out how to go about,” Nagarkurnool Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Gaikwad told PTI.

“One day before they were able to reach up to 40 meters (before the end of the tunnel). Yesterday they reached (crossed) that 40 meters also,” the official further said. Gaikwad further said the team searched at the location but could not find anything last night.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: The Telangana government has written to the Centre seeking a seismological study at the accident site, The Hindu has reported.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: They are Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh (Jammu and Kashmir), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu, and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: The family of Jammu man Sunny Singh, who is trapped inside, has accused his employers of not contacting them so far.

“I only want my son to return home safe and sound. It has been four days and he must be hungry. I appeal to the government to get him out as soon as possible,” his mother Chanchalo Devi said.

She appealed to prime minister Narendra Modi to “speed up” the rescue operation to get the eight trapped men safely out of the tunnel.

“We were talking to him (Sunny) on an almost daily basis, but we did not talk with him on that fateful day,” the mother said with tears rolling down her eyes.

(PTI)

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Experts from 11 agencies including the Indian Army, the Marine Commando Force (MARCOS) of Navy, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Geological Survey of India, rat-miners, and Singareni Collieries Company Limited are involved in the rescue efforts.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: “Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy garu is shamelessly singing peons of their work. And another gem of a minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy manages to stay clueless throughout.

All they have to show after four days of work at SLBC is eight missing people, bunch of debris, slush and a 300 crore damage to the machinery!

I am appalled that they are even feeling proud of all this

If you didn’t do any technical study before restarting the project and carelessly put lives & public money at risk, you have no one to blame but yourselves

We demand a comprehensive judicial enquiry into the SLBC tunnel collapse.

The lives lost and families affected deserve truth and accountability

The Congress government must ensure transparency and justice which is grossly missing so far!” tweets Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president KT Rama Rao.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: The family of Jammu’s Sunny Singh, 32, who is among the eight men trapped inside the tunnel, is eagerly awaiting safe return of their son and prayed for speeding up the rescue efforts.

Singh was working as a machine operator at the site.

The relatives have been making a beeline to the family living in Gurha Manhasan village in the Pargwal area on the India-Pakistan border, 40 kms from Jammu, offering prayers for his safety and giving hope of their reunion.

Singh’s father Ram, a retired soldier, is holding back emotions, while his mother Chanchalo Devi and sisters Anjali and Radha are terribly upset along with their younger brother Rajesh. Singh’s wife Deepti had shifted to her parent’s home.

“We have had no news about him for the last four days and are looking forward to hearing good news soon. One of our relatives, who is also working there, was the one who informed us about the incident,” Rajesh said.

(PTI)

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: Rejecting BRS leader KT Rama Rao’s criticisim of chief minister Revanth Reddy, irrigation minister Uttam Kumar Reddy called it “disgraceful politics.”

“Anybody who is criticising, please remember, there cannot be more disgraceful politics. It is shameful that somebody talks about it,” he said.

Telangana tunnel collapse LIVE: “There is one problem. The flow of slit and water into the tunnel at a very high speed continues. So, an opinion was expressed by some experts that the people going into the rescue, even their lives could be endangered. So, we are a responsible government, we are taking the best expert opinion,” Telangana irrigation minister Uttam Kumar Reddy said on Tuesday.