Nagarkurnool (Telangana) [India], March 25 : Rescue teams on Tuesday recovered a dead body from inside the SLBC tunnel in Nagarkurnool, Telangana, according to official sources.
The body has been shifted to the Nagarkurnool General Hospital for post-mortem examination.
Rescue teams are continuing their search operations to ensure that no one else is trapped inside the tunnel, which collapsed on February 22, entrapping eight workers.
One of the bodies of the trapped workers - Gurpreet Singh, was recovered on March 9. The Chief Minister of Telangana, Revanth Reddy, had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakhs for the kins of the deceased.
On March 11, robotic teams entered the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel to search for and rescue the trapped workers. 110 rescue personnel, along with Anvi Robo experts, carried out the operations.
Calling the incident a national disaster, the Telangana Minister for Irrigation and Civil Supplies, Uttam Kumar Reddy, emphasised that the state government is utilizing the best global technology to overcome the challenges in the final stretch of the 14-kilometre-long tunnel.
On March 6, two cadaver dogs from the Kerala Police and their handlers were brought to assist in the rescue operations at the Telangana tunnel collapse site.
On February 22, a three-meter section of the roof of an under-construction stretch of the SLBC tunnel collapsed at the 14 km mark near Domalapenta in the Nagarkurnool district in Telangana. The collapse occurred just four days after construction work had resumed following a lengthy hiatus. While some workers managed to escape, eight got trapped earlier.