Telangana tunnel collapse: Govt may declare 6 missing workers ‘presumed dead’ if bodies not found

Hyderabad: The Telangana govt, which took up rescue operations after a part of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) roof collapsed at Domalapenta in Nagarkurnool district almost two months ago, is likely to wind up the operations in the next three to four days.
If the rescue agencies fail to trace the remaining six of the eight workers in the last 36 metres, the missing workers will be declared "presumed dead".
The govt on Wednesday issued a GO constituting a technical expert committee with 11 members to look into the technical feasibility and for taking up rescue efforts in the "critical zone" of the last 50 metres so that the remaining six missing workers' bodies could be extricated and handed over to their families in a time-bound manner. "The state govt is keen to locate and extricate the bodies of the remaining six missing workers. They are most likely to be buried in the muck in the critical zone," the GO said.
When the incident occurred on Feb 22 morning, eight workers went missing, and the bodies of two workers were recovered in the search operations by disaster management agencies. The operations have been ongoing for the past two months due to unfavourable conditions such as continuous seepage, metal, and boulders along with muck.
"Of the 324 metres of roof collapse portion, only 36 metres of debris is left for removal of muck and metal debris. On the entire collapsed area, 43 metres from the edge of the tunnel (14 km) has been declared a ‘No Man's Zone' by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and other agencies where no operation can be done," special officer at SLBC Siva Sankar Lotheti told TOI on Wednesday.
The 36 metres of debris removal would be completed in the next three to four days, and, if the agencies do not find the missing six persons in that area, a report would be sent to the state govt for further decision as the agencies cannot go to the 43 metres left over areas of the total 324 metres of the collapsed portion. The GSI and other experts said if they try to remove debris and muck with a tunnel boring machine (TBM), it might risk the agency workers.
Sources said if they don't trace the missing persons, the govt has no option but to declare them as "presumed dead" after following the procedures legally. The govt would later inform the relatives of the missing persons and hand over the 25 lakh ex gratia announced to the kin of the victims. Officials said the conditions inside the tunnel made the task difficult, with 11 agencies, including NDRF, SDRF, South Central Railway, HYDRAA, and SCCL trying to remove the muck and debris.