Hyderabad, March 6: Cadaver dogs of the Kerala Police on Thursday joined the rescue operation in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district where eight persons were trapped since February 22 after a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed.

Two cadaver dogs, that are specially trained to locate missing humans and human bodies, and the officers handling them arrived by an Army helicopter.

The cadaver dog squad, along with their handlers, will be fully deployed on Friday morning.

The officials of the special dog squad held a meeting with Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santosh and officials of the Disaster Management Authority. They made an initial assessment of the situation inside the tunnel.

Rescue operations by multiple teams continued in the partially-collapsed tunnel for the 13th day on Thursday. They have still not found any trace of the missing persons.

Meanwhile, for the first time, the rescue teams were using water jets to clear debris and slush from the accident site. Teams of the Army, the Navy, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Singareni Collieries, HYDRAA, and rathole miners continued their intensive efforts to remove debris and slush.

In another development, representatives of NV Robotics, Hyderabad visited the tunnel to explore the possibility of using robots to trace the missing persons. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, during his visit to the tunnel on Sunday, had asked officials to explore the possibility of using robots.

Meanwhile, Colonel Kirti Pratap Singh, Secretary of the National Disaster Management Authority under the Ministry of Home Affairs, visited the tunnel and reviewed the ongoing rescue operations.

State Disaster Management Special Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar briefed him on the current situation inside the tunnel and the ongoing rescue efforts. He explained that in the 13.650-kilometre stretch of the tunnel, a tunnel boring machine (TBM) had been severely damaged due to the collapse of rocks and soil over a length of approximately 150 metres. Eight workers were trapped inside the TBM, with water and debris further complicating the situation.

Arvind Kumar informed Colonel Singh that the TBM was being carefully cut piece by piece in an attempt to reach the trapped workers. To aid in locating them, cadaver dogs were brought in from Kerala. The conveyor belt system has started functioning, and once the process of removing debris through it begins, the rescue operations will accelerate.

Later, to personally assess the current conditions inside the tunnel and monitor the ongoing operations, Colonel Singh, along with the NDRF personnel and the cadaver dog squad from Kerala, entered the tunnel in the evening. They examined the areas where the dogs needed to be deployed and identified the locations to be inspected.

--IANS

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