Telangana tunnel rescue day 17 | Two more spots identified by sniffer dogs, GPR being dug up by rescue teams

Rescue teams intensify efforts to trace trapped individuals in Srisailam tunnel, using advanced technology and precautions for safety.

The rescue teams engaged in tracing the people trapped under the debris in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel from February 22 have intensified their efforts on Monday (March 10, 2025) morning by taking up digging at D1 and D3 points after successfully extricating one body on Sunday (March 9, 2025). A total of eight people were trapped.

The personnel from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), rat miners from Uttarakhan and miners from Singareni Collieries have taken up digging with all precautions against getting harmed/caught in the debris filled with mud, boulders and parts of the damaged tunnel boring machine (TBM). The teams are making use of three excavators both in digging as well as loading the TBM parts onto the locomotive trolleys and other debris onto the conveyor belt, both located at over one-km distance from the digging spot.

The rescue teams are hopeful that they could find two more people as the D1 and D3 points were identified by the two sniffer dogs from Kerala which are specialised in tracing cadavers, and also by the ground probing radar (GPR) scanning by the experts from National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI). The D2 point from where one body was recovered on Sunday was also identified both by the dog squad and the GPR scanning.

Special Chief Secretary (Disaster Management) of Telangana Arvind Kumar, who is heading the rescue operation, reviewed the progress of rescue work at the tunnel site on Monday with the Army, NDRF, SDRF, Singareni miners, Rat miners, South Central Railway, dog squad and other agencies. The dog squad went into the tunnel again in the morning to trace more people trapped under the debris.

The body of Gurpreet Singh, operator of the TBM, was sent in a hearse van to his native place Cheema Kalan, in Tarn Taran district in Punjab after identification and post mortem in Nagarkurnool. A police and revenue officials’ team accompanying the body was also given the cheque for ₹25 lakh to be handed over to the family of the deceased. The amount is an ex-gratia payment by the State Government in addition to the insurance benefit provided by the employer – Robbins Company.

Official sources stated that a robot along with the surveillance material including camera, modules and tools is also expected to be operational on Tuesday (March 11, 2025) to speed up the rescue operation to trace the remaining persons since the operation in the last 100 meters of the tunnel covered with three to nine meters deep mud is highly risky. The excavators have cleared most of the tunnel till 100 meters distance from the tunnel-end (bedrock) filled with mud, metal parts of the TBM, boulders and seepage water.