Srisailam Left Bank Canal tunnel collapse: Expert committee urged to hasten report

The meeting resolved to hold detailed discussions with the committee members within a week to work out a strategy for resuming the pending works

Hyderabad: A high-level review meeting of irrigation officials held here on Friday urged the expert committee tasked with the job of recommending viable options for completing the stalled irrigation project to expedite its report. The meeting resolved to hold detailed discussions with the committee members within a week to work out a strategy for resuming the pending works.

The works on the SLBC tunnel, a vital component of the irrigation project aimed at transferring Krishna River water from the Srisailam reservoir to irrigate 400,000 acres in the erstwhile Nalgonda district and provide drinking water to 516 villages, has come to a standstill since the roof collapse on February 22. The disaster has left eight workers, including engineers and labourers trapped inside the tunnel.

The bodies of project engineer Manoj Kumar and worker Gurpreet Singh were recovered in March. However, the rescue mission for the remaining six workers-Sunny Singh from Jammu & Kashmir, Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Anuj Sahu, Santosh Sahu from Jharkhand, and one more has been officially concluded due to insurmountable challenges. The damaged Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) and heavy debris accumulation at the cave in point rendered the operations vulnerable.

The project is now poised to be handed back to the agency responsible for tunnel boring, pending the expert committee’s recommendations. The meeting also discussed compensation payment for the affected workers. The Nagarkurnool District Collector has been tasked with finalizing compensation for the families of the six missing workers, who may be declared “presumed dead” if their bodies remain unrecovered.

Compensation formalities for the families of Manoj Kumar and Gurpreet Singh have already been completed, with each receiving an ex-gratia payment of Rs 25 lakh.