A major accident occurred at the SLBC tunnel during the Srisailam left bank canal tunnel works in Domalapenta, Nagarkurnool district, Telangana. A 3-meter roof collapsed at the 14th kilometer of the Srisailam left bank canal tunnel. A three-meter roof collapsed. It is understood that the accident occurred at 8:30 am on Saturday.
The accident occurred at about the 14th kilometer while the SLBC left bank tunnel work was underway. The left bank tunnel work had resumed four days ago. Seven workers were in the tunnel when the tunnel boring machine was being used. As a result, seven workers were seriously injured in the accident.
The workers working nearby were alerted and ran inside after hearing a loud noise. 50 workers had gone to work in the tunnel in the morning shift. The accident occurred when the rings installed in the tunnel fell down. 43 workers came out of the tunnel one by one. Seven more workers were trapped in the tunnel. The power supply in the tunnel was cut off. Rescue operations are ongoing with the help of the police.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy expressed shock over the accident at the SLBC tunnel. He directed the Collector, SP, Hydra, Fire and Irrigation Department officials to go to the site for relief measures. On the orders of the Chief Minister, Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, Irrigation Advisor Aditya Nath Das and Irrigation officials left for the accident site in a special helicopter.
The Srisailam Left Bank Canal Tunnel Project was designed to provide irrigation and drinking water to Nalgonda district. In 2005, the then YSR government issued administrative approvals for the SLBC project at a cost of Rs. 2,200 crore. The construction company agreed to complete the work in about 60 months at a cost of Rs. 1925 crore.
The aim of this project is to transfer 30 TMC of Krishna water from the Srisailam reservoir to Nalgonda district. While the tunnel excavation was undertaken with a tunnel boring machine, the work was stalled due to technical problems and flood problems. The tunnel project work was stalled in December 2019 due to the tunnel boring machine undergoing repairs and lack of funds under the BRS government.
However, the work has recently resumed with the initiative of the Nalgonda ministers. So far, the governments have extended the deadline for the project work six times. The latest deadline is also till June 2026. In 2017, the estimates for this project were increased to Rs. 3,152.72 crore, and recently it was increased again to Rs. 4,637 crore. So far, Rs. 2,646 crore has been spent on this project.
