Telangana CM Announces Rs 25 lakh Ex-Gratia for Family of Gurpreet Singh; Tunnel Collapse Victim
The search for the remaining seven workers continues in full swing.
Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday night announced an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh for the family of Gurpreet Singh, whose body was recovered from the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel in Nagarkurnool district on Sunday.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy expressed condolences over the death of the worker engaged in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel works.
Rescue workers on Sunday - the 16th day of the operation - pulled out the body of Gurpreet Singh - one of the eight missing persons from the partially collapsed SLBC tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district after the cadaver dogs from Kerala identified the spot for presence of human remains under the rubble.
The body was retrieved from under 10 ft of silt. The body has been sent to the Nagarkurnool civil hospital for post mortem and to follow other procedures. The body could be extricated following “very careful” digging and other efforts for more than 48 hours, accoding to an official involved in the rescue mission.
Earlier, the state government deployed cadaver dogs of Kerala police to look for human presence and the rescue personnel carried out digging at the spots suggested by the canines.
Eight persons — engineers and labourers — remained trapped in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project tunnel since February 22 and experts from the NDRF, Indian Army, Navy and other agencies are making relentless efforts to pull them out to safety.
The seven trapped persons are Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas (both UP), Sunny Singh (J&K), and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu (all from Jharkhand).
Several agencies of the state and Central governments have been making efforts for the last 15 days to trace the missing persons.
Gurpreet Singh was working as a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) operator in the American company Robbins.
Conveying deep sympathies to the bereaved family members, the CM announced Rs 25 lakh ex-gratia. The mortal remains of Gurpreet Singh have been sent to his home town in Punjab.
The search for the remaining workers continues as it is, the official added (with inputs from news reports).
