With no breakthrough in the rescue efforts, the chances of survival of the eight persons trapped in a tunnel at the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project in Telangana appear bleak.
The Indian Army, Navy, NDRF, and other agencies raced against time on Monday to reach the trapped workers who have been stuck under debris and mud for two days after a section of the tunnel collapsed in Nagarkurnool district on Saturday morning.
According to reports, the rescue teams had to navigate through thick muck, tangled iron rods, and cement blocks to reach the accident spot.
Though a team of skilled personnel from the Army and Navy inspected the tunnel multiple times and brought in sniffer dogs to locate those trapped inside, they couldn't move forward due to the presence of water.
Meanwhile, the incident has sparked off a political war of words with BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao hitting out at Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for not visiting the accident site.
Rao said CM Reddy was actively participating in MLC poll campaign.
Hitting back at Rao, cabinet minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said two of his colleagues were at the tunnel site overseeing the rescue works. He also alleged that the opposition leader did not visit Sircilla where seven persons died due to the Kaleshwaram project.
Those trapped inside the tunnel have been identified as Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh from Jammu and Kashmir, Gurpreet Singh from Punjab, and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.
Minister Jupally Krishna Rao told news agency PTI that the chances of their survival are very remote.
"To be honest, the chances of their survival are very, very, very, very remote. Because, I myself went up to the end, almost just 50 meters short (of the accident site). When we took photographs, the end (of the tunnel) was visible. And out of the 9-meter diameter (of the tunnel)--almost 30 feet, out of that 30 feet, mud has piled up to 25 feet," he said.
Rao said it would take 3-4 days to remove the debris and extricate the people despite the massive efforts.
The minister further pointed out that the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) , which weighs a few hundred tons, got almost flushed away by about 200 meters after the collapse.
"Even, even assuming they (the trapped persons) are in the lower part of the TBM machine, assuming even if it is intact on the top, where is the air (oxygen)?," he asked.