Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy stated on Sunday that the administration is working to speed up the rescue attempt and that the precise position of the eight people trapped within the partially collapsed tunnel of the SLBC project is still unknown.
After visiting the accident scene in the Nagarkurnool district, Reddy told reporters that once the damaged conveyor belt is fixed, the rescue effort will pick up speed.
The conveyor belt which would help in carrying silt is expected to be restored by Monday.
"They (rescue personnel) are not able to come to a full understanding on where the humans and the machinery got stuck. They have a preliminary estimation but not fully," he said.
He said the government suggested to officials leading the rescue operation to use robos inside the tunnel, if necessary, to avoid any danger to the rescue personnel.
The government is determined to resolve the issue and is also ready to support the families who suffered due to the accident, he said.
Though the rat miners carried out digging at the places identified by the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) as possible locations of humans, it did not reveal any human presence, the chief minister said.
The slush and water emerging inside the tunnel hampered the rescue operation, he said.
The conveyor belt would be useful to remove the silt once it is repaired.
Eight persons--engineers and labourers have been trapped under the collapsed roof of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel since February 22 and the rescue operations are on in full swing to pull them out to safety.