NAGARKURNOOL: The search for seven people trapped inside the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel here continued for the 19th consecutive day on Wednesday, with intensified efforts.
Disaster Management special chief secretary Arvind Kumar and Nagarkurnool district Collector B Santhosh reviewed the progress of rescue operations on Wednesday.
Rescue teams including personnel from NDRF, state-run miner Singareni Collieries, rat miners and other agencies entered the tunnel along with equipment on Wednesday morning in a renewed effort to reach those trapped, official sources said.
A team from a Hyderabad-based robotics company, along with a robot equipped with an AI-based camera, had entered the tunnel on Tuesday morning. Additionally, 110 rescue personnel were deployed.
The robot can reach the interior parts of the tunnel, where the rescue teams could not reach. The efficiency and capacity of the robot was 15 times more than a human being, the officials said.
The officials said that as the rescue teams were facing various difficulties in continuing the operations, they were using the robot. The robot could overcome the problems being encountered due to debris, slush, watering and lack of oxygen in the tunnel.
The hydraulic-powered robot would pump slush outside the tunnel by using a 40 HP motor. The robot is capable of removing 5,000 cubic metres of slush per hour.
At present, as many as 12 rescue teams of State and Central governments were involved in the rescue operations round the clock. The required equipment, water, medical support and oxygen for rescue teams were in place, the officials explained.
State Special Chief Secretary (Disaster Management) Arvind Kumar, who has been overseeing the search operation, held a meeting on Tuesday with officials from various agencies involved in the rescue efforts.
The search operations continue with rescue teams working at specific locations identified by cadaver dogs and radar surveys.
Rescue personnel, guided by Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys conducted by scientists from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad, are focusing their efforts on suspected locations.
The search is also being supported by HRDDs from the Kerala police.
Rescue teams on March 9 retrieved the body of Gurpreet Singh, a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) operator who worked for a foreign company involved in the tunnel project.
The body was handed over to his wife Rajvinder Kaur at his native village in Punjab, said district Collector Santhosh. The State government handed over Rs 25 lakh ex-gratia to the kin of the deceased.
Apart from Gurpreet Singh, the seven others still trapped include Manoj Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Sunny Singh (Jammu & Kashmir), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab), and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand.
The eight individuals comprising engineers and labourers got trapped in the SLBC project tunnel after a portion of it collapsed on February 22.
(With inputs from PTI)