Two weeks on, Punjab worker’s body found from Telangana tunnel

Rescue teams working hard to extricate the eight men trapped under the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel here for over two weeks on Sunday retrieved the body of one of them from under 10 ft of silt.

The deceased has been identified as Gurpreet Singh of Punjab, and was working for Robbins Co involved in the tunnel works.

Singh was identified based on earring on the left ear lobe and tattoo on the right hand, a senior official said. He was a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) operator.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy condoled Singh’s death. After being brought out of the tunnel, the body was sent to the Nagarkurnool civil hospital for postmortem.

Locating the trapped remains challenge

Despite continuous efforts by 11 national-level rescue teams over the past two weeks, locating and retrieving the trapped workers remains a challenge

The government is consulting tunnel construction and rescue experts from across the globe to determine the safest course of action. On Saturday, 525 personnel were engaged in the rescue efforts

The body could be extricated following “very careful” digging for more than 48 hours, the official said. A rescue team member said cadaver dogs, trained to detect human parts and missing humans, had identified two spots inside the tunnel and digging was carried out by involving different agencies including rat miners.

“Yesterday around midnight a hand was noticed. There were seven layers of steel (on the body). We cut the layers and removed the body,” the rescuer said.

Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santhosh said an ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh would be provided to Singh’s family.