Footage from inside the tunnel in Telangana whose roof collapsed while construction work was going on showed debris stuck inside with little space left to bypass the blocked part.
The video showed a rescuer shining a flashlight down the collapsed tunnel and shouting the names of some of the eight people who are trapped inside.
“Manoj, Sriniwas, Dwivedi,” the rescuer said in a loud voice.
“We can’t go beyond this, sir. The ring looks fine till there,” he said, pointing the flashlight at the circular support structure of the tunnel, or the “ring”.
“I can see the ring much farther down. Some voices are also coming,” he added.
The roof of the tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district collapsed over 30 hours ago. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the army, and the Singareni Collieries Co Ltd (SCCL) have been trying to rescue the trapped people.
Officials said rescue workers were 200 metres away from the point where the roof of the tunnel collapsed on Saturday. Water in the tunnel and silt are making the rescue operation challenging, officials said.
Electricity supply to the tunnel has been restored, they said, adding they are also supplying oxygen to the trapped people.
Telangana Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, who came to the affected site to take stock of the situation, told NDTV the tunnel has been under construction for the last 20 years. It is a 44-km-long tunnel and when completed will supply water to about four lakh acres, Mr Reddy said.
“A small leak became a huge gap on the side of the tunnel and water and mud rushed in, flooding the tunnel… We have been working round the clock. We have sought help from the army and the navy for divers, and the NDRF,” Mr Reddy told NDTV.
Two workers were injured when a portion of the roof of the tunnel being dug as part of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) collapsed. Seventy people were working inside the tunnel when the roof collapsed for three meters at the 14-km point.
While most have come out, the remaining eight remained trapped. They include two engineers and two machine operators.
The NDRF team, which reached up to 11 km, found water and mud beyond that point. The rescue workers walked for another 2.5 km to reach the spot.
Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santosh said the efforts are being made for removing water and silt for the rescue team to move forward. The team was unable to take heavy equipment near the site of the roof collapse due to water and silt.
The trapped men are from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Ministers Uttam Kumar Reddy and Jupally Krishna Reddy held a meeting with officials of the NDRF, the army, and other agencies involved.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy expressed shock over the tunnel accident, and assured the government would extend all possible help. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday spoke to Mr Reddy over phone, and asked about the matter. PM Modi also assured all support from the central government.
